Poetry: Chaucer to Metaphysicals and Milton MCQs 2026

Lycidas by Milton is a

1. ARestoration comedy prologue✓
2. Bsales requiem✓
3. Cpastoral elegy for Edward King✓
4. DPinter pause exercise✓

Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is based on

1. Athe Trojan love story from Boccaccio✓
2. BNorwegian doll's house law✓
3. CAmerican salesman myth✓
4. DIrish abbey records✓

The Knight's Tale in Chaucer derives from

1. AMilton's Bible only✓
2. BBoccaccio's Teseida✓
3. CWhitman's catalogs only✓
4. DLarkin's church✓

Chaucer's Miller's Tale is a

1. Abawdy fabliau of cuckoldry and trickery✓
2. Bdevotional sonnet sequence✓
3. CPuritan sermon✓
4. Dsales tragedy✓

Donne's religious turn followed

1. Ajoining the Wagner Company✓
2. Bhis ordination in the Church of England✓
3. Cwaiting for Godot✓
4. Dbuilding Aston's shed✓

Donne's "Batter my heart" sonnet asks God to

1. Ateach Cockney vowels✓
2. Bviolently remake the speaker's sinful will✓
3. Cbuy rubber hose✓
4. Dblackmail Torvald✓

Herbert's "Love (III)" presents

1. Aa dialogue between Love and a hesitant guest✓
2. BPozzo and Lucky✓
3. CWilly and Ben✓
4. DNora and Krogstad✓

Marvell's "Horatian Ode" on Cromwell balances

1. Aadmiration and cautious moral judgment✓
2. Bpure pastoral escapism only✓
3. Cabsurdist nonsense only✓
4. Dsales boosterism only✓

Milton lost his sight and reflects on blindness in

1. AThe General Prologue✓
2. B"When I consider how my light is spent"✓
3. CPygmalion's epilogue✓
4. DThe Caretaker Act III✓

Paradise Lost Book I is set chiefly in

1. Athe Tabard Inn✓
2. BLinda's kitchen✓
3. CAston's shed✓
4. DHell after Satan's fall✓

Eve's temptation in Paradise Lost occurs via

1. Aa phonetics bet✓
2. Ba forged loan✓
3. Ca caretaker's key✓
4. DSatan speaking through the serpent✓

Spenser's Mutability Cantos appear in

1. AParadise Lost✓
2. BThe Faerie Queene (Book VII in the 1609 folio)✓
3. CThe Canterbury Tales✓
4. DHarmonium✓

Chaucer's language mix includes

1. AGaelic only✓
2. BRussian only✓
3. CFrench and Latin loanwords in English verse✓
4. DJapanese only✓

The Metaphysical "conceit" is

1. Aa rhymed couplet closing every scene✓
2. Ban extended metaphor yoking unlike things ingeniously✓
3. Ca Pinter pause✓
4. Da sales flashback✓

Herbert's verse is plainer than Donne's because Herbert favors

1. Aclassical epic similes only✓
2. BRestoration double entendre✓
3. Csales jargon✓
4. Dsimple diction and devotional humility✓

Marvell's coy mistress poem lists deserts of

1. ABrooklyn apartments✓
2. BLondon phonetics labs✓
3. Ceternity where worms try the lady's honor✓
4. DNorwegian banks✓

Milton's epic similes often draw on

1. ACockney rhyming slang only✓
2. Bcaretaker inventories only✓
3. Cclassical and natural vastness to magnify action✓
4. DGodot's tree only✓

Chaucer's "estates satire" in the General Prologue targets

1. Acorruption across clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie✓
2. Bonly Satan's legions✓
3. Conly American salesmen✓
4. Donly Irish monks alone✓

Donne's Songs and Sonnets often dramatize

1. Apastoral nationalism only✓
2. Bkitchen realism only✓
3. Ccommission charts only✓
4. Dlove as physical-spiritual paradox✓

Paradise Regained focuses on

1. AWilly's Boston affair✓
2. BEliza's ball debut✓
3. CChrist's temptation in the wilderness✓
4. DHedda's pistols✓

Samson Agonistes by Milton is a

1. ARestoration comedy✓
2. Bmusical phonetics lesson✓
3. Ccloset tragedy on Samson's captivity and death✓
4. Dabsurdist vaudeville✓

Chaucer's Retraction at the end of the Tales

1. Adeclares sales success✓
2. Bannounces Godot's arrival✓
3. Ccurses the Faerie Queene✓
4. Dasks Christ's mercy for worldly writings✓

Spenser's Epithalamion celebrates

1. ANora's departure✓
2. BMillamant's proviso✓
3. Chis marriage to Elizabeth Boyle✓
4. DLinda's requiem✓

The term "Metaphysical poets" was popularized by

1. AChaucer in 1387✓
2. BSamuel Johnson (with later revival by Eliot)✓
3. CShaw in 1914✓
4. DMiller in 1949✓

Milton's sonnet on his blindness famously concludes that

1. Adeath shall die at last✓
2. Bbeauty is truth alone✓
3. Cthose who only stand and wait also serve God✓
4. Dto strive and not to yield✓

Marvell served as secretary to

1. AWilliam Congreve✓
2. BGeorge Bernard Shaw✓
3. CHarold Pinter✓
4. DJohn Milton as Latin Secretary✓

Geoffrey Chaucer is best known for

1. AThe Canterbury Tales✓
2. BParadise Lost✓
3. CThe Faerie Queene Book I only✓
4. DThe Waste Land✓

The Canterbury Tales uses a narrative frame of

1. Apilgrims travelling to Canterbury and telling stories✓
2. Bsoldiers waiting on a road✓
3. Ca doll's house foreclosure✓
4. Da sales route in Brooklyn✓

Chaucer wrote in

1. AOld English only✓
2. BMiddle English✓
3. CModern English from birth✓
4. DLatin prose exclusively✓

The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales describes

1. Aonly Milton's Satan✓
2. Bonly Spenser's knights✓
3. Conly Donne's sermons✓
4. Deach pilgrim's estate, appearance and temperament✓

The Wife of Bath is famous for her views on

1. APuritan predestination only✓
2. Bmarriage, sovereignty and female experience✓
3. CRestoration rake ethics✓
4. Dsales commissions✓

The Pardoner in Chaucer exposes

1. Ahypocritical greed in selling fake relics✓
2. Bpastoral innocence only✓
3. CPuritan election✓
4. DVictorian propriety✓

Edmund Spenser's great allegorical romance is

1. AThe Canterbury Tales✓
2. BThe Faerie Queene✓
3. CLyrical Ballads✓
4. DHowl✓

The Faerie Queene was dedicated to

1. AQueen Elizabeth I✓
2. BKing James II only✓
3. COliver Cromwell✓
4. DGeorge III✓

Spenser invented a stanza form known as

1. Athe Spenserian stanza (nine lines, ababbcbcc)✓
2. Bthe Shakespearean sonnet✓
3. Cthe terza rima only✓
4. Dfree verse✓

Prince Arthur in The Faerie Queene represents

1. ARestoration foppery✓
2. Bmagnificence and the ideal knight✓
3. CAmerican sales dreams✓
4. Dabsurdist waiting✓

Redcrosse Knight in Book I symbolizes

1. Athe Wife of Bath✓
2. BWilly Loman✓
3. CLucky the servant✓
4. DHoliness (and England)✓

Spenser's poetry is noted for

1. Akitchen-sink dialogue only✓
2. Bsales flashbacks only✓
3. Csensuous description and moral allegory✓
4. Dsilent pauses only✓

John Donne is a leading

1. AMetaphysical poet✓
2. BRomantic nature poet only✓
3. CVictorian novelist only✓
4. DBeat Generation novelist✓

Metaphysical poetry characteristically uses

1. Asimple ballad stanzas only✓
2. Bwitty conceits and argumentative structure✓
3. Cunbroken pastoral description✓
4. Dblank sales dialogue✓

Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" compares lovers to

1. Aa Grecian urn only✓
2. Bthe legs of a compass✓
3. Ca sales route map✓
4. Da caretaker's shed✓

"Death, be not proud" by Donne concludes that

1. Adeath shall die through eternal life✓
2. Bbeauty is truth✓
3. Cthe child is father to the man✓
4. Dattention must be paid✓

Donne's "The Flea" treats

1. Aa phonograph wager✓
2. Ba rubber hose✓
3. Ca flea as metaphor for mingled blood and union✓
4. Da Norwegian tarantella✓

George Herbert is associated with

1. ARestoration comedy✓
2. BAmerican naturalism✓
3. CTheatre of the Absurd✓
4. DAnglican devotional poetry✓

Herbert's "The Collar" dramatizes

1. Aa sales commission dispute✓
2. Ba doll's house slam✓
3. Ca soul's rebellion and return to obedience✓
4. DGodot's arrival✓

Herbert's "Easter Wings" is shaped to resemble

1. Aa compass leg✓
2. Ba bowler hat✓
3. Ca rubber hose✓
4. Dwings spreading on the page✓

Herbert's poetry often appears in

1. AThe Temple✓
2. BLyrical Ballads✓
3. CLeaves of Grass✓
4. DHarmonium✓

Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" argues

1. Aeternal Platonic waiting only✓
2. BPuritan election only✓
3. Ccarpe diem against delayed love✓
4. Dsales success only✓

Marvell's "The Garden" celebrates

1. Aurban sales rivalry✓
2. Bcourt marriage contracts✓
3. Csaloon pipe dreams✓
4. Dretreat into pastoral solitude and contemplation✓

"Upon Appleton House" by Marvell reflects on

1. ABrooklyn requiems✓
2. BCovent Garden phonetics✓
3. Cthe Fairfax estate and civil war-era retirement✓
4. DHarry Hope's bar✓

John Milton's epic masterpiece is

1. AThe Faerie Queene✓
2. BThe Canterbury Tales✓
3. CParadise Lost✓
4. DThe Waste Land✓

Paradise Lost opens with Milton invoking

1. Athe Wife of Bath✓
2. Bthe Heavenly Muse to justify God's ways✓
3. CHappy Loman✓
4. DDavies the tramp✓

Milton wrote Paradise Lost primarily in

1. ASpenserian stanza✓
2. Bheroic couplets only✓
3. Cblank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)✓
4. Dfree verse✓

Satan's famous line "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" appears in

1. AThe Way of the World✓
2. BParadise Lost✓
3. CDeath of a Salesman✓
4. DWaiting for Godot✓

Adam and Eve live originally in

1. AHarry Hope's saloon✓
2. BAston's cluttered room✓
3. Cthe Tabard Inn✓
4. Dthe Garden of Eden✓

The angel who shows Adam future history in Book XI is

1. AMichael✓
2. BRaphael only in every book✓
3. CUriel at the Fall only✓
4. DGabriel in Hell✓

Raphael in Paradise Lost warns Adam about

1. Aphonetics wagers✓
2. Brubber commissions✓
3. Ccaretaker keys✓
4. DSatan's envy and the danger of knowledge✓

Milton's Satan has been debated as

1. Aa charismatic rebel versus embodiment of evil✓
2. Ba comic Restoration fop only✓
3. Ca phonetics tutor only✓
4. Da silent Beckett tramp✓

Paradise Lost is structured in

1. Afive acts only✓
2. Bone continuous sonnet✓
3. Cfourteen Canterbury tales✓
4. Dtwelve books (after early ten-book edition)✓

Milton's Areopagitica is a prose plea for

1. Aclosed Restoration theatres✓
2. Bmandatory Cockney lessons✓
3. Csales quotas✓
4. Dunlicensed printing and free debate✓