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Elective English Question Bank
UNIT 1
Essay type questions:
1. what is a sonnet? Explain the different types of sonnet.
2. discuss the different forms of stanza.
3. what is a ballad? Describe the features of a ballad.
4. what do you mean by lyric? Discuss the subject matter of a lyric.
5. explain the three distinct part of a lyric.
6.what do you mean by ode? State the distinguishing features of an ode.
7. discuss the subject matter of a sonnet.
8. what is an elegy? State the features of an elegy.
9. what is an idyll? State the features of an idyll.
10. explain the style and treatment of an idyll.
11. what are the subject matter of an idyll.
12. what do you mean by an epic? Describe in detail the features of an epic.
13. what is a mock epic. Write in detail.
14. state the different kinds of ballad.
15. what is a satire? Discuss its subject matter.
16. what do you mean by a satire? State the essential of a good satire.
17.what do you mean by a heroic couplet? Describe the characters of a heroic couplet.
19. what do you mean by a dramatic monologue? Write the characterstics of a
dramatic
monologue.
20. what is prosody? Account for the importance of metre in poetry.
Short answer type questions:
1. what do you mean by rhyme?
2. what do you mean by an accent?
3. what are the various forms of poetry?
4. what kind of verse form is terza rima?
4. write in brief
a) blank verse
b) free verse
c) terza rima
d) Chaucerian stanza
e) ottava rima
f) Spenserian stanza
g) meter
h) rhythm
g) verse
i) measure
J) Iambic pentameter
UNIT II
1. Sonnet 29
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of sonnet 29.
2. write the critical appreciation of Sonnet 29.
3. Sonnet 29 opens with a sense of frustration but ends with a happy note. Discuss.
Short answer type questions:
1. what does the three ‘state’ in sonnet 29 stands for?
2. why is the poet feeling frustrated in the poem sonnet 29?
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3. what do you mean by ‘bootless’?
4. why is Shakespeare considering his state an outcaste?
5. what are the two specific reason that made Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 29?
6. who is the friend referred to in Sonnet 29?
7. what lifts the mood of the poet?
8. what is lark compared with?
9. Shakespeare compares himself with whom in Sonnet 29?
10. why is the poet cursing his fate?
2. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of the poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.
3. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne is a metaphysical poem.
Discuss.
Short answer type question:
1. what do you mean by a metaphysical poetry?
2. what are the features of a metaphysical poetry?
3. how does the poet console his beloved?
4. with whom does the poet compares his physical separation from his wife?
5. why is Donne not disturbed at the thought of bidding farewell to his beloved?
6. mention the two kinds of lovers that Donne refers to in A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning.
5. reference to context
a) line no 1 to 5
b) line no 5 to 10
c) line no 6 to 15
d) line no 7 to 20
e) line no 8 to 25
f) line no 26 to 30
g) line no 31 to 35
3. Lycidas
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of the poem Lycidas.
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem Lycidas.
3. how is Milton’s Lycidas a pastoral elegy?
4. John Milton’s Lycidas is a monody. Discuss.
Short answer type questions:
1. what do you mean by a monody?
2. who is Lycidas in the poem Lycidas?
3. who are the sisters of the sacred well?
4. who is Damaetas?
5. where does the old bards dwell?
6. who is phoebus?
7. who used the oaten flute according to the Greek Mythology?
8. who is the god of sea?
9. who is Apollo?
10. who are Amaryllis and Neara?
11. who is hippotades?
12. who is Panope?
13. what according to Hippotades causes the death of Lycidas?
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14. Milton blamed whom for the death of Lycidas?
15.what does ‘camus’ stand for?
16. what do you undearstand by ‘sanguine flower?
18. what does ‘grim wolf’ stand for?
19. who is Alpheus?
20. what does ‘swart star’ stands for?
21. what is Amaranthus? Where does it bloom?
22. what are Hebrides?
23. who is Bellerus?
24. what does’ guarded mount’ stands for?
26. what does the sailors think of Dolphin?
27. what do you mean by Doric?
28. what do you mena by Quills?
29. why is the speaker telling his friends not to weep?
30. what according to Phoebus is the real fame?
31. according to the speaker what kinds of flower can bloom?
32. state the various flowers that will decorate Lycidas’s coffin.
UNIT II
1. Kubla Khan
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of Kubla Khan.
2. write the critical appreciation of Kubla Khan.
3. Kubla Khan is a dream poem. Explain.
4. Kubla Khan is a supernatural poem. Discuss.
5. How is Kubla Khan an autobiographical poem?
Short answer type questions:
1. who is Kubla Khan?
2. where is Xanadu?
3. what are the supernatural elements in the poem Kubla Khan?
4. why does the man from Porlock come to meet Coleridge?
5. Describe the location of the pleasure dome.
6. what do you know about the Alph?
7. what is a Dulcimer?
8. who was playing the Dulcimer?
9. what does Mount Abora refers to?
10. Reference to context (the whole poem is important)
2. Ode to Nightingale
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of Ode to Nightingale?
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem Ode to Nightingale.
3. Analysis Keats treatment of the Nightingale and its song in Ode to Nightingale.
Short answer type questions:
1. what do you mean by ‘hemlock’?
2. what happens to the poet when he hear the song of the Nightingale?
3. why is Nightingale considered as ‘light-winged Dryad?
4. what do you mean by Dryad?
5. where does Provence located?
6. what do you mean by a provencal song?
7. what is eglantine?
8. What do you know about Ruth?
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9. who is Bacchus?
10. who draw the chariots of Bacchus?
11. what do you understand by Hippocrene?
12 what is believe to have happen after drinking water fountain of Hippocrene?
13. what do you know about Lethe?
15. the Queen moon is surrounded by whom?
16. through which medium the poet wants to be transported to the world of
Nightingale?
17. describe the forest of where Nightingale dwells?
18 what are the flowers that grow in the forest where Nightingale dwells?
19. what do you understand by ‘requiem’?
20. what happens to the poet when he no longer hear the song of Nightingale?
21. who is the immortal bird?
22. why does the poet consider the world of Nightingale devoid of sorrow?
23. why does the poet want to be transported to the world of Nightingale?
3. Three Years She Grew
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of the poem Three Years She Grew.
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem Three Years She Grew.
3. how is the poem Three Years She Grew a nature poem?
4. how does Nature influence upon Lucy according to Wordsworth?
5. How does Wordsworth describe Nature’s influence upon Lucy?
Short answer type questions:
1. what lessons will the ‘floating clouds’, ‘river’, ‘mountain’ and ‘storm’ teach Lucy?
2. what was the effect of the dead of Lucy on the poet?
3. what is the poet’s feelings when Lucy died?
4. why does nature want to adopt Lucy?
5. How old was Lucy when nature first found her?
5. what do you mean by ‘dell’?
6. how does Nature console itself after Lucy died?
UNIT III
1. ULYSSES
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of the poem Ulysses.
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem Ulysses.
3. how is Ulysses by Tennyson a dramatic monologue?
4. The poem Ulysses embodies Victorian yearning and thirst ‘to follow knowledge like
a sinking star’. Explain.
Short answer type questions:
1. who is Telemachus?
2. why does Ulysses think Telemachus fit for ruling his kingdom?
3. who is Penolope?
4. what is Hyades?
5. According to Ulysses, where will he meet Achilles?
6. who is Achilles?
7. why does Ulysses consider his people as hoard?
8. reference to context ( the whole poem is important)
2. Pied Beauty
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Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of the poem Pied Beauty.
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem Pied Beauty.
3. how does Hopkins explore the breathtaking variety of nature in its many forms in
the
poem Pied Beauty?
4. Pied Beauty is a poem glorifying the multi-colored creation of God. Discuss.
5. In Pied Beauty Hopkins glorifies the multi-colored creation of God. Explain.
6. Pied Beauty by Hopkins is a hymn. Discuss.
Short answer type questions:
1. what do you mean by Pied?
2. how is coupled color sky compared to ‘brinded cow’?
3. which color spotted the trout?
4. why does Hopkins consideres chestnut as fresh charcoal?
5. what do you mean by ‘trim’, ‘gear’ and ‘tackle’?
6. why does the poet calls everyone to praise God?
7. how is all things created by God differ and contrast from one another?
8. what do you understand by ‘fathers-forth?
9.’landscape plotted and pieces’ what do you understand by this line?
10. what do you mean by ‘fallow’ and ‘folds’?
11. state the various adjectives employed by Hopkins in his poem Pied Beauty.
3. The Darkling Thrush
Essay type questions:
1. write the summary of the poem Darkling Thrush.
2. write the critical appreciation of the poem Darkling Thrush.
3. What features of the Landscape promote Hardy’s gloom in The Darkling Thrush?
Short answer type questions:
1. what features promote Hardy’s gloom?
2. how is the mood of thrush different from that of Hardy’s?
3. how is Hardy’s thrush different from Keats Nightingale?
4. what do you mean by ‘spectre-grey’?
5. what do you mean by a ‘coppice’?
6. what does ‘century’s corpse’ referred to?
7. what do you mean by ‘death lament’?
8. what is a ‘dirge’?
9. what do you mean by the word ‘carolings’?
10. According to Hardy from where does the thrush get its inspiration?
11. why does the landscape looked like corpse?
12. what scenes were created by freezing winter?
13. what does the word ‘broken lyres’ signify?
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UNIT IV
Language Skills
Descriptive Questions:
1. define the features of scholarly style?
2. distinguish between footnote and endnote.
3. what do you mean by an Assignment paper? What are the points to be kept in mind
while writing an assignment paper?
4. what is a bibliography? Why is it important for writing an scholarly writing?
5. distinguished between assignment paper and scholarly paper.
6. distinguish between footnote and bibliography.
7. distinguish between endnote and bibliography.
8. distinguish between footnote, endnote and bibliography.