T. S. Eliot – The Metaphysical Poets – Exam Based MCQs
1. “The Metaphysical Poets” is an essay by: (UGC NET 2016; SET 2019; PGTRB 2021)
A) I. A. Richards
B) T. S. Eliot
C) F. R. Leavis
D) Northrop Frye
Ans: B) T. S. Eliot
2. Eliot’s essay “The Metaphysical Poets” was originally published in: (SET 2018; UGC NET 2017)
A) 1590
B) 1921
C) 1948
D) 1965
Ans: B) 1921
3. In “The Metaphysical Poets,” Eliot famously introduces the concept of: (PGTRB 2019; SET 2020)
A) Intentional fallacy
B) Dissociation of sensibility
C) Archetypal criticism
D) Reader-response
Ans: B) Dissociation of sensibility
4. Eliot praises the metaphysical poets for their ability to: (UGC NET 2015; PGTRB 2018)
A) Separate thought from feeling
B) Unite thought and feeling
C) Write only pastoral poetry
D) Avoid complex imagery
Ans: B) Unite thought and feeling
5. According to Eliot, the “dissociation of sensibility” becomes evident after the age of: (SET 2017)
A) Chaucer
B) Milton and Dryden
C) Keats
D) Tennyson
Ans: B) Milton and Dryden
6. Eliot identifies John Donne as: (UGC NET 2014; SET 2016; PGTRB 2020)
A) A Romantic poet
B) A central metaphysical poet
C) A Victorian poet
D) A modern dramatist
Ans: B) A central metaphysical poet
7. In Eliot’s view, metaphysical poetry is characterized by: (SET 2019; UGC NET 2018)
A) Simplicity and plainness only
B) Complexity, wit, and conceits
C) Purely narrative style
D) Only pastoral themes
Ans: B) Complexity, wit, and conceits
8. Eliot argues that the metaphysical poets could “feel their thought” which suggests: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020)
A) Thought and emotion were integrated
B) Poetry should avoid intellect
C) Poetry should be purely emotional
D) Poetry must be simple
Ans: A) Thought and emotion were integrated
9. The “unification of sensibility” refers to: (PGTRB 2022; SET 2018)
A) Separation of intellect and feeling
B) Fusion of intellect and emotion in poetic experience
C) Only religious devotion
D) Only musical rhythm
Ans: B) Fusion of intellect and emotion in poetic experience
10. Eliot’s criticism is often linked with: (UGC NET 2016; PGTRB 2019; SET 2021)
A) New Criticism / Modernist criticism
B) Only Marxist criticism
C) Only postcolonial criticism
D) Only reader-response
Ans: A) New Criticism / Modernist criticism
11. Eliot contrasts metaphysical poetry with later poets because later poets: (SET 2016)
A) Integrated thought and feeling better
B) Show a split between intellect and emotion
C) Wrote only religious verse
D) Used only simple conceits
Ans: B) Show a split between intellect and emotion
12. “Dissociation of sensibility” in Eliot’s essay mainly means: (UGC NET 2017)
A) Separation of thought from feeling
B) Increase in rhyme
C) Use of alliteration
D) Decline of metaphor
Ans: A) Separation of thought from feeling
13. Eliot argues that poets after the 17th century became: (PGTRB 2020; SET 2019)
A) More unified in sensibility
B) More specialized, losing integration of thought and feeling
C) Only religious
D) Only pastoral
Ans: B) More specialized, losing integration of thought and feeling
14. Which poet is most often central to discussions of metaphysical poetry? (UGC NET 2015; SET 2018)
A) John Donne
B) William Wordsworth
C) Alfred Tennyson
D) W. B. Yeats
Ans: A) John Donne
15. Eliot appreciates metaphysical poets for using: (SET 2017; PGTRB 2018)
A) Simple similes only
B) Elaborate conceits and wit
C) Only nature imagery
D) Only folk themes
Ans: B) Elaborate conceits and wit
16. Eliot’s essay helped revive interest in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2020)
A) Metaphysical poets
B) Only Romantic poets
C) Only Victorian novelists
D) Only Greek tragedians
Ans: A) Metaphysical poets
17. Eliot argues that a “unified sensibility” means the poet can: (PGTRB 2021)
A) Think without feeling
B) Feel and think simultaneously
C) Avoid intellect
D) Avoid metaphor
Ans: B) Feel and think simultaneously
18. Eliot’s criticism often promotes the idea of: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2018; PGTRB 2022)
A) Objective correlative and impersonal theory of poetry
B) Only biography
C) Only sociology
D) Only reader-response
Ans: A) Objective correlative and impersonal theory of poetry
19. Eliot’s term “dissociation of sensibility” is mainly a historical claim about: (SET 2019)
A) How poetry changed after the 17th century
B) How drama developed in Greece
C) How novels became popular
D) How linguistics formed
Ans: A) How poetry changed after the 17th century
20. In Eliot’s essay, the metaphysical poets are admired for their: (UGC NET 2016)
A) Smoothness and ease only
B) Directness, wit, and intellectual complexity
C) Pure narrative
D) Only simplicity
Ans: B) Directness, wit, and intellectual complexity
21. Eliot contrasts the metaphysical poets with poets like: (PGTRB 2019; SET 2020)
A) Milton and Dryden
B) Chaucer and Spenser
C) Keats and Shelley
D) Yeats and Pound
Ans: A) Milton and Dryden
22. The “metaphysical conceit” is usually a: (UGC NET 2015; SET 2017)
A) Simple comparison
B) Far-fetched but intellectually clever comparison
C) Only a rhyme pattern
D) Only a moral lesson
Ans: B) Far-fetched but intellectually clever comparison
23. Eliot’s essay is significant because it: (SET 2016; PGTRB 2018)
A) Dismissed Donne completely
B) Reassessed and revived metaphysical poetry for modern readers
C) Focused only on Victorian poetry
D) Avoided literary history
Ans: B) Reassessed and revived metaphysical poetry for modern readers
24. In Eliot’s view, the metaphysical poets used “a language of the mind” meaning: (UGC NET 2018)
A) Poetry without emotion
B) Poetry with intellectual and emotional fusion
C) Poetry without imagery
D) Poetry only for children
Ans: B) Poetry with intellectual and emotional fusion
25. Eliot’s critical concept suggests that modern poets should aim for: (PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2017; SET 2019)
A) Pure emotion without thought
B) Integration of intellect and feeling
C) Only narrative style
D) Only simple imagery
Ans: B) Integration of intellect and feeling
26. Eliot’s term “dissociation of sensibility” is used to describe a: (SET 2018)
A) Cultural split affecting poetry
B) Change in printing press
C) Decline of drama
D) Rise of novels
Ans: A) Cultural split affecting poetry
27. Eliot’s admiration for metaphysical poets is linked to his own modernist ideal of: (UGC NET 2019; PGTRB 2021)
A) Complexity and precision of thought
B) Only simplicity
C) Only nature worship
D) Only nationalism
Ans: A) Complexity and precision of thought
28. Eliot’s essay belongs to the tradition of: (SET 2017)
A) Modernist literary criticism
B) Medieval theology
C) Pure linguistics
D) Only rhetoric manuals
Ans: A) Modernist literary criticism
29. Eliot claims that metaphysical poets “amalgamated disparate experiences,” meaning: (UGC NET 2016; SET 2019)
A) They avoided complexity
B) They fused diverse ideas and feelings into a single poetic experience
C) They wrote only religious poems
D) They used only simple metaphors
Ans: B) They fused diverse ideas and feelings into a single poetic experience
30. Eliot’s essay helped shape 20th-century views of metaphysical poetry by emphasizing: (PGTRB 2018; SET 2020)
A) The unity of thought and feeling
B) Only narrative
C) Only rhyme
D) Only moralizing
Ans: A) The unity of thought and feeling
31. Eliot’s criticism often argues that poetic greatness involves: (UGC NET 2017)
A) Sensibility that unites intellect and emotion
B) Only personal confession
C) Only musical rhyme
D) Only social realism
Ans: A) Sensibility that unites intellect and emotion
32. Eliot’s term is used to explain the decline of which quality after the 17th century? (SET 2018; PGTRB 2020)
A) Unified sensibility
B) Grammar
C) Printing
D) Meter
Ans: A) Unified sensibility
33. Eliot’s essay is frequently cited in exams for the term: (UGC NET 2015; SET 2017; PGTRB 2019)
A) Dissociation of sensibility
B) Archetype
C) Différance
D) Defamiliarization
Ans: A) Dissociation of sensibility
34. Eliot’s essay suggests that metaphysical poets were not merely “intellectual” but also: (SET 2016)
A) Emotionally intense in their thinking
B) Purely didactic
C) Only narrative
D) Only lyrical without thought
Ans: A) Emotionally intense in their thinking
35. Eliot’s view is that metaphysical poetry achieves a “direct sensuous apprehension of thought,” meaning: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2021)
A) Thought becomes a felt experience
B) Thought is avoided
C) Feeling is avoided
D) Poetry is only logical
Ans: A) Thought becomes a felt experience
36. Eliot’s essay is part of his broader modernist critical project emphasizing: (PGTRB 2018)
A) Tradition and impersonality
B) Only biography
C) Only nationalism
D) Only realism
Ans: A) Tradition and impersonality
37. Which pair is correctly matched? (SET 2019)
A) Eliot – dissociation of sensibility
B) Eliot – archetypes
C) Eliot – intentional fallacy
D) Eliot – reader-response
Ans: A) Eliot – dissociation of sensibility
38. Eliot’s essay re-evaluates metaphysical poetry against the earlier neoclassical dislike associated with: (UGC NET 2016; SET 2018)
A) Samuel Johnson’s criticism of “metaphysical” wit
B) Aristotle’s Poetics
C) Plato’s Republic
D) Sidney’s Defence
Ans: A) Samuel Johnson’s criticism of “metaphysical” wit
39. Eliot’s argument implies that modern poetry should recover: (PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2017)
A) The unity of sensibility
B) Only simple diction
C) Only heroic couplets
D) Only allegory
Ans: A) The unity of sensibility
40. Eliot’s concept is often used to explain why some later poetry becomes: (SET 2020; UGC NET 2018)
A) Too rational or too emotional, lacking fusion
B) Too musical
C) Too short
D) Too religious
Ans: A) Too rational or too emotional, lacking fusion
41. Eliot’s discussion of metaphysical poets is a major text in: (UGC NET 2015; PGTRB 2019)
A) Modern criticism and literary theory
B) Only prosody
C) Only translation
D) Only book history
Ans: A) Modern criticism and literary theory
42. Eliot’s essay is often used to define metaphysical poetry by its: (SET 2018)
A) Wit and complex conceits
B) Only simplicity
C) Only ballad form
D) Only nationalism
Ans: A) Wit and complex conceits
43. Eliot argues that metaphysical poets “amalgamate” experiences, meaning they: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Combine intellectual ideas with sensory/emotional experience
B) Avoid thought
C) Avoid emotion
D) Avoid metaphor
Ans: A) Combine intellectual ideas with sensory/emotional experience
44. The essay “The Metaphysical Poets” is closely associated with which key poet? (PGTRB 2022; SET 2020)
A) John Donne
B) Wordsworth
C) Keats
D) Browning
Ans: A) John Donne
45. Eliot’s formulation changed the modern canon by elevating: (UGC NET 2016)
A) Metaphysical poetry for modernist taste
B) Only Victorian poetry
C) Only Renaissance drama
D) Only epic poetry
Ans: A) Metaphysical poetry for modernist taste
46. Which statement best reflects Eliot’s idea? (SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) Poetry should split thought and feeling
B) Great poetry integrates thought and feeling
C) Poetry should be purely narrative
D) Poetry should avoid conceits
Ans: B) Great poetry integrates thought and feeling
47. Eliot’s term is frequently asked in exams to describe a post-17th century split between: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2021)
A) Intellect and emotion
B) Meter and rhyme
C) Plot and character
D) Grammar and syntax
Ans: A) Intellect and emotion
48. Eliot’s essay is best placed under: (PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2017)
A) Literary Criticism / Theory
B) Phonetics
C) Translation studies only
D) Journalism
Ans: A) Literary Criticism / Theory
49. Eliot’s argument suggests that Donne’s poetry is valuable because it: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2018)
A) Unites intellectual argument with emotional intensity
B) Avoids wit
C) Uses only simple images
D) Avoids metaphor
Ans: A) Unites intellectual argument with emotional intensity
50. Overall, “The Metaphysical Poets” demonstrates Eliot’s belief that poetry should: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2020; PGTRB 2022)
A) Be purely emotional
B) Integrate thought and feeling as a unified sensibility
C) Avoid intellect
D) Be only moral teaching
Ans: B) Integrate thought and feeling as a unified sensibility
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