American Literature Test 1 Test Questions – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
Colonial New England period is also known as what?
answer
Puritan Era
question
When was Jamestown established?
answer
1607
question
When did the Separatists come to the New World?
answer
1620
question
When did the Puritans come to America?
answer
1630
question
When the Puritans came to America, where did they land?
answer
Massachusetts Bay
question
What are the literary characteristics of the Colonial New England period?
answer
Unadorned, simple, useful, natural, utalitarian, didactic, and Biblical
question
What are the Genres of the Colonial New England period?
answer
Propaganda (early), sermons, biographies, histories, poetry, diaries, journals, and tales of Indian captivities
question
What types of poetry was in the Colonial New England period?
answer
Rhymed statements, long, didactic poems, historical verse, funeral elegies, and personal lyric poems
question
Who wrote Of Plymouth Plantation?
answer
William Bradford
question
What is Of Plymouth Plantation about?
answer
It describes Pilgrim arriving in the New World
question
What is the theme Of Plymouth Plantation?
answer
The providence of God manifested in the lives of His people
question
In Of Plymouth Plantation, what boat leaks?
answer
Speedwater
question
In Of Plymouth Plantation, who was the only person to die on board?
answer
William Butten
question
"Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men- and what multitudes there might be of them they new not."
answer
Of Plymouth Plantation
question
What four things discouraged the pilgrims in Of Plymouth Plantation?
answer
(1)no houses, (2)were afraid of Indians, (3)winter, (4) wilderness on one side, ocean on the other
question
In Of Plymouth Plantation, what existed to give some form of government?
answer
Mayflower Compact
question
In Of Plymouth Plantation, what was the Pilgrim's purpose of coming to the New World?
answer
They wanted to have spiritual freedom
question
Who was the first woman to have poetry published, wrote The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up, wrote "The Author to Her Book", was a graduate of Cambridge, wrote "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House", and wrote "Contemplations"?
answer
Anne Bradstreet
question
What is a sestet?
answer
A group of six lines
question
What is the rythm of Verses Upon the Burning of Our House?
answer
AABBCC
question
What is the theme of Verses Upon the Burning of Our House?
answer
Tragedy, and how she deals with it
question
What does didactic mean?
answer
Teach and delight
question
Who is this talking about:"I blest His name that gave and took"?
answer
Job
question
"Yet, by His gift, is made thine own. There's wealth enough; I need no more."
answer
Verses Upon the Burning of Our House
question
In Verses Upon the Burning of our House, Bradstreet sees her stuff as pelf. What is pelf?
answer
Her possessions are like garbage
question
What is Iambic pentameter?
answer
~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /
question
What type of rythm does Contemplations have?
answer
ABABCCC
question
Contemplations has how many stanzas?
answer
7-line
question
In Contemplations, ABAB means what?
answer
The poet asks a question
question
In Contemplations, CCC means what?
answer
The poet answers, or gives a truth
question
Whose style does Bradstreet use in Contemplations?
answer
John Done and Edmund Spencer
question
What three things does Bradstreet look at in Contemplations?
answer
She looks at (1)the nature of God, (2)the meaning of life, (3) and the existence of eternity
question
In Contemplations, stanzas 1-9 go talks about what?
answer
God's splendor
question
In Contemplations, stanzas 10-20 talks about what?
answer
Man's depravity, nature's beauty
question
In Contemplations, stanza 18 talks about what?
answer
Nature is renewed, but man isn't
question
In Contemplations, stanzas 21-28 talks about what?
answer
Nature's contentment, man's discontentment
question
In Contemplations, stanzas 29-33 talks about what?
answer
Remedy to man's depravity -- there is an afterlife
question
What does Bradstreet compares life to in her poem Contemplations?
answer
Voyage
question
"O Time, the fatal wrack of mortal things, That draws oblivion's curtains over kings, Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not, Their homes without a record are forgot, Their parts, their pots, their pomp's all laid in th' dust, Nor wit nor gold, nor building 'scape times rust; But he whose name is grav'd in the white stone Shall last and shine when all of these are gone" -stanza 33
answer
Contemplations
question
What verse talks about the "white stone"?
answer
Revelation 2:17
question
What does "O Time" means in Contemplations?
answer
apostrophe
question
What is an apostrophe?
answer
Words addressed to an inanimate object as if it were alive or to an absent person as if he were present
question
What type of metaphor is "The Author to Her Book"?
answer
extended metaphor
question
What does Bradstreet compare "The Author to Her Book" to?
answer
A child born with birth defects
question
What is an extended metaphor?
answer
A metaphor that is developed at length and is often the controlling image running throughout a literary work
question
In "The Author to Her Book", what is Bradstreet talking about: "I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet"?
answer
Metric meter
question
Who was chief of the Wampanoag Indians?
answer
King Philip
question
When was Mary Rowlandson taken captive with her children?
answer
February 10, 1768
question
What is a simile?
answer
A 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter with a definite pattern of two basic varieties, English or Italian
question
What story is full of scripture, sandwiches scripture, and is full of practical truth?
answer
A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
question
What is the summary of events for A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson?
answer
(1)the attack (2)first remove (3)second remove (4) eighth remove (5)concluding meditation: 20th remove
question
What are the lessons from the 20th remove from A Narrative of the the Captivity of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson?
answer
(1)God;s power (2)materialism (3)false spirituality (4)God;s presence (5)proper perspective
question
Who is considered the best of Puritan poets, is a doctor, prepared meditations for the Lords Supper, wrote Preparatory Meditations, and wrote Upon Wedlock and Death of Children?
answer
Edward Taylor
question
What is the sestet for Preparatory Meditations?
answer
ABABAC
question
Preparatory Meditations has something.
answer
~ `/ ~ ` / ~ ` / ~ ` / ~ ` /
question
What is the theme for Preparatory Meditations?
answer
The supremacy of God's love
question
What is conceit?
answer
A strongly exaggerated simile or metaphor
question
What is metaphysical conceits?
answer
Analogies used by 17th century metaphysical poets, usually comparing spiritual qualities to common physical objects
question
What does John 6:51 say?
answer
"I am the living bread"
question
"Oh! that thy love might overflow my heart To fire the same with love! For love I would, But oh! my straitened breast! my lifeless spark! My fireless flame! What chilly love and cold! In measure small! in manner chilly! See! Lord, blow the coal, Thy love enflame in me."
answer
Preparatory Meditations (Meditation 1)
question
What does Edward Taylor express in Meditation 8, stanzas 1 through 3?
answer
despair
question
What does Edward Taylor feel in Meditation 8, stanzas 5 and 6?
answer
hope
question
What does Edward Taylor talk about in Meditation 8, stanza 4?
answer
redemption
question
"He, to end all strife, The purest wheat in heaven, his dear-dear son, Grinds and kneads up into this bread of life"
answer
Preparatory Meditations
question
In Preparatory Meditations (meditation 8), explain stanzas 4 and 5. "In this sad state, God's tender bowels run Out streams of grace; and he, to end all strife, The purest wheat in heaven, his dear-dear Son, Grinds and kneads up into this bread of life, Which bread of life from heaven down came and stands Disht on thy table up by angels' hands. Did God mould up this bread in heaven, and bake Which from his table came, and to thine goeth? Doth he bespeak thee thus? 'This soul-bread take; Come, eat thy fill of this, thy God's white life. It's food too fine for angels; yet come, take And eat thy fill. It's heaven's sugar cake.'"
answer
Salvation is shown as a free gift
question
What is the theme for Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children?
answer
It is a godly response to the death of his children; and his response is in the complete submission to the will of God
question
In "Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children", what does Taylor describe his marriage as?
answer
Flowerbed
question
In "Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children", what does Taylor describe his children as?
answer
Flowers
question
"But pausing on't this sweet perfum'd my thought, Christ would in glory have a flower; choice, prime, And having choice, chose this my branch forth brought. Lord, take! I thank Thee, Thou takest ought of mine; it is my pledge in glory; part of me Is now in it, Lord, glorifi'd with Thee."
answer
Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children (stanza 5)
question
"Grief o're doth flow: and nature fault would find Were not Thy will my spell, charm, joy, and gem: That as I said, I say, take, Lord, they're Thine: I piecemeal pass to glory bright in them. I joy, may I sweet flowers for glory breed, Whether THou get'st them green , or lets them seed."
answer
Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children (stanza 7)
question
Who was colonial America's most famous preacher, probably the most brilliant scholar, and wrote Sinners in the Hands of and Angry God?
answer
Jonathan Edwards
question
What type of sermon is Sinners in the Hands of and Angry God?
answer
A typical puritan sermon
question
What three things does Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God have?
answer
(1)reason (2)doctrine (3)uses
question
What does Deuteronomy 32:35 say?
answer
"Their foot shall slide in due time."
question
What is the thesis for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?
answer
"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
question
What is used throughout the whole sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?
answer
similies
question
Look at notes for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
answer
Look at notes for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
question
What is the Neoclassic Period also known as?
answer
Early National Period
question
Look at notes for the Neoclassicism and the New Republic
answer
Look at notes for the Neoclassicism and the New Republic
question
What has (1)a wrong view of God, (2)doesn't see the Bible as divine and, (3)thinks that it can be virtuous by its reasoning?
answer
Deism
question
What is satire?
answer
Ridicule, though wit or humor, of human folly or vice with the purpose of correcting it
question
What are the two types of satire?
answer
formal (direct) and indirect
question
Who wrote The Way to Wealth?
answer
Benjamin Franklin
question
What story uses indirect satire?
answer
The Way to Wealth
question
In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, who is Franklin's friend's name?
answer
John Collins
question
In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, where did Franklin go?
answer
Philadelphia
question
In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, what does Franklin call sin?
answer
bad habits (not Biblical)
question
What three verses go along with The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin?
answer
Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:12,23
question
Who was a Frenchman who wrote Letters from an American Farmer?
answer
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
question
In Letters from an American Farmer, who is the speaker?
answer
James
question
What differs from life in Europe from life in America?
answer
Letters from an American Farmer
question
Who was the first black poet in America, wrote On Being Brought from Africa to America, and wrote A Funeral Poem on the Death of C.E., an infant of Twelve Months
answer
Phillis Wheatley
question
What is an octave?
answer
A group of eight lines
question
What is the Iambic pictameter for On Being Brought from Africa to America?
answer
AABBCCDD
question
"Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land" "Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join the angelic train"
answer
On being Brought from Africa to America
question
In A Funeral Poem on the Death of C.E., an Infant of Twelve Months, what does Wheatley describe about her infant son?
answer
What he would see as his soul flies to heaven
question
In A Funeral Poem on the Death of C.E., an Infant of Twelve Months, who is this similar to? "To yon bright regions let your faith ascend, Prepare to join your dearest infant friend, In pleasures without measure, without end."
answer
King David
question
What is an elegy?
answer
A formal and sustained poem meditating on death of a particular person or of man in general
question
Who was dubbed "Poet of the American Revolution", pre-romantic, and wrote The Wild Honey Suckle?
answer
Philip Freneau
question
What is the theme for The Wild Honey Suckle?
answer
Life is short
question
In The Wild Honey Suckle, what saying is an apostrophe and ryhme?
answer
Fair flower
question
In The Wild Honey Suckle, what is very fragile?
answer
Honied blossoms blow
question
In The Wild Honey Suckle, what type is this saying? "By Nature's sef in white arrayed"
answer
personafication
question
What story focuses on the here and now?
answer
The Wild Honey Suckle
question
Who was the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, wrote about satire on false religions, and wrote The Smooth Divine?
answer
Timothy Dwight
question
In The Smooth Divine, how is the preacher opposite of Jonathan Edwards?
answer
He was preaching for money, he focused on God's love, he was materialistic
question
Who was a devout Christian and wrote An American Dictionary of the English Language?
answer
Noah Webster
question
Who did the same thing as Noah Webster?
answer
Samuel Johnson
question
"Language or speech is the utterance of articulate sounds or voices, rendered significant by usage, for the expression and communication of thoughts." "It is therefore probable that language as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God."
answer
An American Dictionary of the English Language
question
In An American Dictionary of the English Language, what is the immediate gift of God?
answer
Language
question
What is a metaphor?
answer
Implied comparisons in which one thing is described in terms of another
question
What are symbols?
answer
Have meanings in themselves but also represent other things as well
question
What is a rhyme?
answer
The similarity of sound between two words
question
What is end rhyme?
answer
Repetition of accented or stressed vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in words at the ends of poetic lines
question
What is alliteration?
answer
The repetition of initial consonant sounds, as in tried and true
question
What is a consonance?
answer
The repetition of vowel sounds as in first and last
question
What is an assonance?
answer
The repetition of vowel sounds as in mile, time, and mind
question
What is an onomatopoeia?
answer
using words which sound like what they mean ("growl", "hiss", "pop")
question
What is rhythm?
answer
The regular recurrence of sounds
question
What is a meter?
answer
The measured rhythm of a poem
question
The is a foot?
answer
The pattern in a poetic line of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables
question
What is an iambic pentameter?
answer
Five iambs in a line, it echoes the natural movement of our English language
question
What is blank verse?
answer
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
