T.S. Eliot – “The Waste Land” – Exam Based MCQs
1. “The Waste Land” is written by: (UGC NET / SET / PGTRB)
A) W. B. Yeats
B) T. S. Eliot
C) W. H. Auden
D) Dylan Thomas
Ans: B) T. S. Eliot
2. The poem was first published in the UK in: (UGC NET)
A) The Spectator
B) The Tatler
C) The Times
D) The Criterion
Ans: D) The Criterion
3. The poem appeared in The Criterion in: (SET)
A) October 1922
B) October 1912
C) December 1932
D) November 1945
Ans: A) October 1922
4. Soon after, it was published in the U.S. in: (UGC NET)
A) The New Yorker
B) The Atlantic
C) The Dial
D) The Guardian
Ans: C) The Dial
5. The first book publication (US) was by: (PGTRB)
A) Penguin Classics
B) Boni & Liveright
C) Oxford University Press
D) Random House
Ans: B) Boni & Liveright
6. The poem is divided into: (SET)
A) 3 parts
B) 4 parts
C) 6 parts
D) 5 parts
Ans: D) 5 parts
7. Part I of the poem is titled: (UGC NET)
A) The Burial of the Dead
B) The Fire Sermon
C) Death by Water
D) What the Thunder Said
Ans: A) The Burial of the Dead
8. Part II of the poem is titled: (PGTRB)
A) The Burial of the Dead
B) Death by Water
C) A Game of Chess
D) The Hollow Men
Ans: C) A Game of Chess
9. Part III is titled: (SET)
A) Little Gidding
B) The Fire Sermon
C) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
D) The Dry Salvages
Ans: B) The Fire Sermon
10. Part IV is titled: (UGC NET)
A) The Burial of the Dead
B) A Game of Chess
C) What the Thunder Said
D) Death by Water
Ans: D) Death by Water
11. Part V is titled: (UGC NET)
A) What the Thunder Said
B) The Fire Sermon
C) A Game of Chess
D) The Waste Land (Finale)
Ans: A) What the Thunder Said
12. The poem’s dedication is addressed to: (SET)
A) W. B. Yeats
B) James Joyce
C) Ezra Pound
D) Virginia Woolf
Ans: C) Ezra Pound
13. The phrase “il miglior fabbro” means: (PGTRB)
A) The greatest prophet
B) The better craftsman
C) The silent thunder
D) The lost sailor
Ans: B) The better craftsman
14. The epigraph is taken from: (UGC NET)
A) Petronius’ Satyricon
B) Homer’s Iliad
C) Milton’s Paradise Lost
D) Dante’s Inferno
Ans: A) Petronius’ Satyricon
15. The epigraph refers to the Sibyl at: (SET)
A) Delphi
B) Troy
C) Athens
D) Cumae
Ans: D) Cumae
16. “The Waste Land” is commonly associated with: (UGC NET)
A) Victorian realism
B) Modernism
C) Medieval romance
D) Restoration comedy
Ans: B) Modernism
17. A signature feature of the poem is: (PGTRB)
A) Single speaker only
B) Simple ballad rhyme
C) Fragmentation and multiple voices
D) Pure pastoral description
Ans: C) Fragmentation and multiple voices
18. The opening famously presents April as: (SET)
A) Cruelest (not a celebration of spring)
B) Most peaceful month
C) Purely joyful season
D) Time of heroic war
Ans: A) Cruelest (not a celebration of spring)
19. The poem’s notes were added early partly to: (UGC NET)
A) Replace the poem entirely
B) Hide references
C) Make it shorter
D) Pad/extend the text for book publication
Ans: D) Pad/extend the text for book publication
20. The poem is celebrated for heavy use of: (SET)
A) Pure folk tale style
B) Allusion and quotation across cultures
C) Only Irish myth
D) Scientific diagrams
Ans: B) Allusion and quotation across cultures
21. “A Game of Chess” largely focuses on: (UGC NET)
A) A sea voyage
B) A desert pilgrimage
C) A tense domestic scene / modern relationships
D) A farming festival
Ans: C) A tense domestic scene / modern relationships
22. “Death by Water” centers on: (SET)
A) A drowned figure (water/death motif)
B) A wedding banquet
C) A courtroom trial
D) A city election
Ans: A) A drowned figure (water/death motif)
23. “What the Thunder Said” includes an emphasis on: (PGTRB)
A) Pure romance
B) Comic satire only
C) Scientific discovery
D) Spiritual crisis and possible renewal
Ans: D) Spiritual crisis and possible renewal
24. “The Fire Sermon” title connects most directly to: (UGC NET)
A) Norse mythology
B) Buddhist discourse (renunciation / burning desires)
C) Greek tragedy
D) Shakespeare’s comedies
Ans: B) Buddhist discourse (renunciation / burning desires)
25. The poem’s method is BEST described as: (SET)
A) Collage / montage of fragments
B) Simple chronological plot
C) A single pastoral song
D) A detective mystery with one narrator
Ans: A) Collage / montage of fragments
26. The poem is often read as expressing post–World War I: (UGC NET)
A) Triumph and celebration
B) Pure optimism
C) Rural prosperity
D) Disillusionment and cultural crisis
Ans: D) Disillusionment and cultural crisis
27. The title “The Waste Land” suggests: (PGTRB)
A) A perfect garden city
B) Only a real geography lesson
C) Spiritual dryness / cultural barrenness
D) A comic travel guide
Ans: C) Spiritual dryness / cultural barrenness
28. The dedication “il miglior fabbro” is an Italian phrase connected to: (SET)
A) Chaucer’s Prologue
B) Dante (Purgatorio) / the idea of a “better craftsman”
C) Milton’s epics
D) Homer’s epics
Ans: B) Dante (Purgatorio) / the idea of a “better craftsman”
29. The poem’s epigraph is bilingual (Latin + Greek) and frames: (UGC NET)
A) A desire for death (Sibyl’s weariness)
B) A farming celebration
C) A royal coronation
D) A legal trial
Ans: A) A desire for death (Sibyl’s weariness)
30. The poem’s global references and languages support a sense of: (PGTRB)
A) Single tradition only
B) Total clarity always
C) Simple fairy tale structure
D) Cultural breakdown + searching for meaning
Ans: D) Cultural breakdown + searching for meaning
31. The poem is one of the most influential works of: (SET)
A) Restoration drama
B) 20th-century modernist poetry
C) Elizabethan comedy
D) Romantic pastoral verse
Ans: B) 20th-century modernist poetry
32. The poem’s form is best described as: (UGC NET)
A) Sonnet sequence
B) Epic in heroic couplets
C) Long modernist poem with shifting speakers
D) One-act play
Ans: C) Long modernist poem with shifting speakers
33. “The Waste Land” is often taught alongside modernism concepts like: (PGTRB)
A) Fragmentation, myth, and allusion
B) Strict neoclassical rules only
C) Medieval chivalry
D) Pure Romantic spontaneity only
Ans: A) Fragmentation, myth, and allusion
34. Which is NOT a section title of “The Waste Land”? (SET)
A) The Burial of the Dead
B) A Game of Chess
C) What the Thunder Said
D) East Coker
Ans: D) East Coker
35. The poem’s publication year is most commonly given as: (UGC NET)
A) 1918
B) 1922
C) 1939
D) 1900
Ans: B) 1922
36. “The Criterion” was: (SET)
A) A medieval manuscript
B) A theatre troupe
C) A literary magazine founded/edited by Eliot
D) A political party newspaper
Ans: C) A literary magazine founded/edited by Eliot
37. Which statement is TRUE about the early publications? (UGC NET)
A) First in The Criterion, then The Dial, then book by Boni & Liveright in 1922
B) First as a novel in 1800
C) First in The Spectator in 1711
D) First as a stage play in 1950
Ans: A) First in The Criterion, then The Dial, then book by Boni & Liveright in 1922
38. The poem’s method of stitching different texts and voices is called: (PGTRB)
A) Pastoral imitation
B) Realist narration
C) Heroic couplet technique
D) Intertextual collage
Ans: D) Intertextual collage
39. The epigraph’s central figure (Sibyl) is primarily known as: (SET)
A) A medieval queen
B) An ancient prophetess
C) A modern novelist
D) A Shakespearean clown
Ans: B) An ancient prophetess
40. The poem is famous for abrupt shifts in: (UGC NET)
A) Only weather descriptions
B) Only rhyme pattern
C) Scene, speaker, and language
D) Only chronological plot
Ans: C) Scene, speaker, and language
41. The poem is often interpreted using the idea of: (PGTRB)
A) Cultural decline + quest for renewal
B) Pure comedy of manners
C) Rural idyll only
D) Romantic nature worship only
Ans: A) Cultural decline + quest for renewal
42. “The Waste Land” notes were first printed with the book edition in: (UGC NET)
A) 1899
B) 1905
C) 1911
D) 1922
Ans: D) 1922
43. The dedication “For Ezra Pound” reflects Pound’s role as: (SET)
A) Translator of the epigraph
B) Major editor who helped shape the poem
C) Publisher of The Criterion
D) Composer of the poem’s music
Ans: B) Major editor who helped shape the poem
44. The poem’s overall style is best described as: (UGC NET)
A) Pastoral romance
B) Medieval allegory
C) Modernist, symbolic, and allusive
D) Restoration satire only
Ans: C) Modernist, symbolic, and allusive
45. The poem’s epigraph frames a mood of: (PGTRB)
A) Exhaustion and a wish to end suffering
B) Wedding joy
C) Agricultural celebration
D) Comic prank
Ans: A) Exhaustion and a wish to end suffering
46. Which item is correctly matched? (SET)
A) Part IV — A Game of Chess
B) Part I — Death by Water
C) Part V — The Fire Sermon
D) Part II — A Game of Chess
Ans: D) Part II — A Game of Chess
47. “The Waste Land” is often described as a landmark of: (UGC NET)
A) Romanticism
B) High Modernism
C) Neo-classicism
D) Medieval literature
Ans: B) High Modernism
48. The poem’s complexity often comes from: (PGTRB)
A) One single clear narrative
B) No references at all
C) Dense references to myth, religion, and literature
D) Only nursery rhyme language
Ans: C) Dense references to myth, religion, and literature
49. The standard section order is: (SET)
A) Burial → Chess → Fire Sermon → Water → Thunder
B) Thunder → Water → Chess → Fire → Burial
C) Water → Burial → Fire → Chess → Thunder
D) Chess → Burial → Thunder → Water → Fire
Ans: A) Burial → Chess → Fire Sermon → Water → Thunder
50. Which statement is TRUE about “The Waste Land”? (UGC NET)
A) It is a Victorian realist novel
B) It is a single-sonnet lyric
C) It is a medieval romance poem
D) It is a modernist long poem published first in 1922 periodicals
Ans: D) It is a modernist long poem published first in 1922 periodicals
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