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Transcendentalism and Romanticism Study Guide
___1. Transcendentalists believe that the most fundamental truths must be gained
a. intuitively.
b. emotionally.
c. physically.
d. magically.
___2. Which of the following is NOT a transcendental belief?
a. non-conformity
b. maturity
c. self-reliance
d. confidence
___3. Romantic writers valued
a. intuition over thought.
b. imagination over reason.
c. fact over fiction.
d. confidence over patience
___4. Washington Irving was the first American author to…
a. write short stories.
b. make a living off of writing short stories.
c. marry his cousin.
d. write about Romanticism.
___5. The main lesson of “The Devil and Tom Walker” is that
a. greed and mean-spiritedness lead to misery.
b. husbands and wives should love each other.
c. Prayer can erase all past sins.
d. great wealth can never produce happiness.
___6. It can be inferred from the story that New England Puritans of Tom Walker’s day
believed in
a. many gods
b. witches and spirits
c. tolerance of all religious faiths
d. reincarnation
___7. Which of these statements best demonstrates an omniscient narrator?
a. Tom was walking through the forest.
b. Tom’s wife was tall and greedy.
c. Mrs. Walker hoped that Tom would make the pact, but Tom would not agree, just to
spite her.
d. As Tom grew older, he began to worry about what would happen after he died, but he
did not care about his wife.
___8. What is the significance of Tom’s finding most of the tall trees in the forest each “marked
with the name of some great man of the colony”?
a. The townspeople carved great men’s names on trees.
b. Landowners carved their names on trees on their property.
c. The men had carved their own names on the trees to ensure their fame.
d. Carved on the trees in the Devil’s forest are the names of those who made a deal with
him.
___9. What is the setting of “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving?
a. the Rocky Mountains
b. the Smoky Mountains
c. the Grand Tetons
d. the Kaatskill Mountains
___10. What aspect of Romanticism is most apparent in “Rip Van Winkle”?
a. the focus on nature
b. the interesting architecture
c. the focus on imagination over reason
d. the importance of feelings
___11. Which of Knickerbocker’s lines is an example of foreshadowing from “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving?
a. Poor Ichabod. He would have had a pleasant life, if only his path and young Katrina’s
had never crossed.
b. The wind’s howl became the woman in white.
c. But Ichabod wasn’t the only one interested in Katrina.
d. He cracked his whip wildly in the air, spurring his steed onward.
___12. In “The Black Cat,” what is the name of the narrator’s first cat?
a. Saturn
b. Pluto
c. Mercury
d. Venus
___13. In “The Black Cat,” what shape does the second cat’s white fur form?
a. A judge’s gavel
b. The gallows
c. The scales of justice
d. An electric chair
___14. Where does the narrator hide the old man’s dismembered body in “The Tell-Tale Heart”?
a. Under the floorboards
b. In the attic
c. In a dumpster
d. Under the bed
___15. What must readers figure out in order to understand Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge”?
a. How the characters act
b. The setting and the mood
c. The order of the events
d. The reason for the hanging
___16. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, why does the Federal scout want to burn the
bridge?
a. He wants to help the South win.
b. He wants to set Farquhar up.
c. He wants a job building a new bridge.
d. He wants to disrespect his commandant
___17. What sound device is used in the following passage?
“And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling…”
a.
b.
c.
d.
Alliteration
Consonance
Rhyme
Assonance
___18. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Paine are two of the most famous American
Transcendentalists.
a. true
b. false
___19. Why did Henry David Thoreau go to Walden Pond?
a. to fish
b. to rest
c. to escape
d. to hunt
___20. How long did Thoreau stay at Walden Pond?
a. 2 years
b. 3 years
c. 5 years
d. 1 year
___21. Which of Thoreau’s main beliefs is expressed in the passage from Walden?
a. A belief in appreciating music
b. A belief in doing what others do
c. A belief in living as an individual
d. A belief in having close friends
___22. Which element of Thoreau’s style is shown in these passages from Walden?
“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand…
Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes,
five…”
a.
b.
c.
d.
Using mathematical examples
Using themes from the kitchen
Repeating main ideas
Using only short sentences
___23. What part of Thoreau’s philosophy is found in this passage from Walden?
“Our life is frittered away by details. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in
extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest.”
a.
b.
c.
d.
Paying attention to details
Living a life of simplicity
Aiming for personal honesty
Working with one’s hands
___24. What does Thoreau call for, in terms of government, at the conclusion of the selection
from Civil Disobedience?
a. a better government
b. no government at all
c. a government run by businesses
d. a government run by a king
___25. Emily Dickinson grew up in
a. New England
b. New York
c. New Jersey
d. New Amsterdam
___26. Emily Dickinson published about 1,700 poems in her lifetime.
a. true
b. false
___27. Which of the following images is the central image in “Because I could not stop for
death—“?
a. The setting sun
b. The horses’ heads
c. Children playing
d. A carriage ride
___28. What is the message of the poem “Water, is taught by thirst.”?
a. Opposites teach about each other
b. Thirsty people long for water.
c. Life has difficult challenges.
d. Battles and war are unnecessary.
___29. In the following stanza from “The Soul selects its own Society,” which pair of words
forms a slant rhyme?
“Unmoved—she notes the Chariots—pausing— / At her low Gate— /Unmoved—an Emperor be kneeling /
Upon her Mat—“
a.
b.
c.
d.
Pausing and Gate
Pausing and Mat
Gate and Mat
Gate and kneeling
___30. Which element contributes most to Whitman’s poetry of free verse?
a. Regular metrical lines
b. Fixed-length stanzas
c. Regular speech patterns
d. Exact rhyme schemes
___31. The “singing” the speaker hears in “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman is
a. the language of different ethnic groups in the American melting pot
b. the songs from foreign lands brought to America by immigrants
c. the poetry of Whitman and other American poets
d. the individuality of Americans in different walks of life
Use this poem to answer questions 32-34.
There is a solitude of space
By Emily Dickinson
There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself—
Finite Infinity.
Finite- having measurable qualities
Infinite- endless or unlimited space, time, or distance.
32. Provide an example of a sound device that is used in “There is a solitude of space”.
Please give the sound device and then the example (Consonance- “As Syllable from Sound”).
Alliteration- “polar privacy”
33. Provide an example of an oxymoron from the poem.
“finite infinity”
34. Give two elements of this poem that are common in Emily Dickinson’s writing.
The use of dashes and the capitalization of nouns
35. In Walden, Thoreau says, “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps
it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for
that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a
beaten track for ourselves.” What do you think he means by falling into a “particular route”?
Why does he see doing the same thing over and over as a problem? Write a brief essay (5-6
sentences) to express your opinions. Use at least two examples of transcendental thought
to support your opinion.
Henry David Thoreau stayed at Walden Pond for two years until he felt that his time there
was done. He and the other transcendentalists believed that people should have “free
thought”; therefore, falling into a particular route would be something to avoid. If a person
does the same thing over and over again, there is little room for growth. Also, Thoreau was
confident enough to know when it was time for him to change his route and move on to
something else.