1.What is the rhyme-scheme of Shakespearean sonnet?
abcbcbcabcbcdd
ababcdcdefefgg
abbaabbcdecde
aabbccddaabbdd
abcdabcdabcdee
Correct answer: ababcdcdefefgg
2.What is an iambic pentameter?
An eight syllable line rhyming aabb
A twelve syllable line of alternating stresses in which the first syllable in each foot is stressed
A line of five feet in which the dominant accent usually falls on the second syllable of each foot (di dúm), a pattern known as an iamb
An emblem of truth worn by the hero of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
A rhyming couplet of seven syllables
Correct answer: A line of five feet in which the dominant accent usually falls on the second syllable of each foot (di dúm), a pattern known as an iamb
3.Which of the following brought a bear into Trinity College when he was an undergraduate?
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Roger Waters
John Milton (1608-74)
Correct answer: George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
4.What is a heroic couplet?
A pair of heroes in an epic poem united by solemn ties of friendship
A double epithet such as 'horse-taming Hector'
A pair of rhyming iambic pentameters
A pair of rhyming iambic lines of twelve syllables
A couplet consisting of six iambic feet
Correct answer: A pair of rhyming iambic pentameters
5.When was Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene printed?
In three instalments: 1453, 1465, 1483
In three instalments: 1590, 1596, 1609
In 1603
In 1873
Correct answer: In three instalments: 1590, 1596, 1609
6.Which of the following did not attend the University of Cambridge?
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Christopher Marlowe (1564-93)
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Correct answer: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
7.What is a feminine rhyme?
A rhyme on two syllables in which the last syllable is unstressed.
A rhyme on two syllables.
A rhyme on three syllables.
A poem composed by a woman.
A poem in which every third syllable rhymes.
Correct answer: A rhyme on two syllables in which the last syllable is unstressed.
8.What is a trochee?
A two syllable foot of verse with two heavy stresses
A two syllable foot of verse in which the stress falls on the first syllable.
A six line stanza in which the rhyme sounds are all identical.
A tool used by medieval poets to erase their mistakes
Three successive heavy stresses
Correct answer: A two syllable foot of verse in which the stress falls on the first syllable.
9.Who ended his Cambridge career when he enlisted in the dragoons under the name of Silas Tompkyn Comberback?
Silas Marner (1832-75)
Thomas Gray (1716-71)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Samuel Butler (1825-1902)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63)
Correct answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
10.What is practical criticism?
The close analysis of poems without taking account of any external information
A movement which wished to make literary criticism more relevant
The close analysis of literary texts in such a way as to bring out their political meaning
The study of ambiguity
Criticism of a poem by a living poet with a view to making him or her rewrite it
Correct answer: The close analysis of poems without taking account of any external information
