History of English Literature – The Age of Wordsworth – Exam Based MCQs
1. The Age of Wordsworth roughly belongs to: (UGC NET / SET / PGTRB)
A) Late 18th and early 19th centuries
B) 14th century
C) Late 17th century
D) Early 20th century
Ans: A) Late 18th and early 19th centuries
2. The Age of Wordsworth is also known as the: (SET)
A) Augustan Age
B) Victorian Age
C) Romantic Age
D) Puritan Age
Ans: C) Romantic Age
3. The age is named after: (UGC NET)
A) William Blake
B) William Wordsworth
C) S.T. Coleridge
D) Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ans: B) William Wordsworth
4. The Age of Wordsworth begins conventionally with the publication of: (PGTRB)
A) Preface to Shakespeare
B) The Dunciad
C) Lyrical Ballads
D) The Seasons
Ans: C) Lyrical Ballads
5. Lyrical Ballads was published in: (SET)
A) 1755
B) 1798
C) 1832
D) 1667
Ans: B) 1798
6. Lyrical Ballads was written jointly by: (UGC NET)
A) Wordsworth and Shelley
B) Keats and Coleridge
C) Wordsworth and Coleridge
D) Blake and Byron
Ans: C) Wordsworth and Coleridge
7. The Preface to Lyrical Ballads was mainly written by: (PGTRB)
A) Coleridge
B) Keats
C) Wordsworth
D) Lamb
Ans: C) Wordsworth
8. Wordsworth defined poetry as: (SET)
A) An imitation of classical models
B) The best words in the best order
C) Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
D) A mirror of polished society
Ans: C) Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
9. According to Wordsworth, poetry takes its origin from: (UGC NET)
A) Courtly manners
B) Emotion recollected in tranquility
C) Mythological learning only
D) Urban wit
Ans: B) Emotion recollected in tranquility
10. The Romantic Age emphasized: (PGTRB)
A) Reason and classical restraint only
B) Imagination, emotion, and nature
C) Satire and wit only
D) Urban society only
Ans: B) Imagination, emotion, and nature
11. A key Romantic reaction was against: (SET)
A) Medievalism
B) Neo-classicism
C) Nature
D) Imagination
Ans: B) Neo-classicism
12. Wordsworth is often called the poet of: (UGC NET)
A) City life
B) Nature
C) Satire
D) Heroic drama
Ans: B) Nature
13. Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem is: (PGTRB)
A) The Prelude
B) Kubla Khan
C) Adonais
D) Childe Harold
Ans: A) The Prelude
14. Wordsworth’s philosophical poem addressed to Coleridge is: (SET)
A) Tintern Abbey
B) The Excursion
C) The Recluse
D) The Prelude
Ans: D) The Prelude
15. “Tintern Abbey” is a poem by: (UGC NET)
A) Coleridge
B) Wordsworth
C) Keats
D) Shelley
Ans: B) Wordsworth
16. Coleridge contributed to Lyrical Ballads with: (PGTRB)
A) Kubla Khan only
B) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
C) Christabel only
D) Dejection: An Ode
Ans: B) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
17. Coleridge is especially associated with: (SET)
A) Supernaturalism and imagination
B) Political satire
C) Social comedy
D) Heroic couplets
Ans: A) Supernaturalism and imagination
18. Coleridge’s prose masterpiece of criticism is: (UGC NET)
A) The Spectator
B) Biographia Literaria
C) Lives of the Poets
D) Areopagitica
Ans: B) Biographia Literaria
19. Biographia Literaria is important for: (PGTRB)
A) Epic narrative
B) Literary criticism and theory of imagination
C) Political history
D) Travel writing
Ans: B) Literary criticism and theory of imagination
20. Another major Romantic poet of the age is: (SET)
A) Alexander Pope
B) John Dryden
C) Lord Byron
D) Ben Jonson
Ans: C) Lord Byron
21. Byron’s famous poem is: (UGC NET)
A) Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
B) The Prelude
C) Adonais
D) Endymion
Ans: A) Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
22. Byron is associated with the “Byronic hero,” meaning: (PGTRB)
A) A cheerful pastoral shepherd
B) A rebellious, proud, melancholy hero
C) A comic servant
D) A saintly monk
Ans: B) A rebellious, proud, melancholy hero
23. Another major Romantic poet of the age is: (SET)
A) Percy Bysshe Shelley
B) Samuel Johnson
C) Congreve
D) Fielding
Ans: A) Percy Bysshe Shelley
24. Shelley wrote: (UGC NET)
A) Ode to the West Wind
B) The Rape of the Lock
C) The Beggar’s Opera
D) The School for Scandal
Ans: A) Ode to the West Wind
25. Shelley’s Adonais is an elegy on the death of: (PGTRB)
A) Byron
B) Keats
C) Wordsworth
D) Coleridge
Ans: B) Keats
26. John Keats is another major poet of the age and is famous for: (SET)
A) Odes
B) Heroic tragedies
C) Satirical prose
D) Lexicography
Ans: A) Odes
27. Keats wrote: (UGC NET)
A) Ode to a Nightingale
B) The Prelude
C) Biographia Literaria
D) Childe Harold
Ans: A) Ode to a Nightingale
28. Keats is often called the poet of: (PGTRB)
A) Sensuous beauty
B) Social satire
C) Political pamphleteering
D) Dramatic realism
Ans: A) Sensuous beauty
29. Romantic poetry often uses: (SET)
A) Artificial diction only
B) Simpler language and personal emotion
C) Latinized prose only
D) Courtly satire only
Ans: B) Simpler language and personal emotion
30. Wordsworth preferred the language of: (UGC NET)
A) Aristocratic circles only
B) Common men
C) Classical scholars only
D) Court politics
Ans: B) Common men
31. The French Revolution initially inspired many Romantic poets because it stood for: (PGTRB)
A) Liberty, equality, and fraternity
B) Courtly elegance only
C) Medieval feudalism
D) Religious dogma only
Ans: A) Liberty, equality, and fraternity
32. The Romantic age gave importance to: (SET)
A) Individualism
B) Only rules and decorum
C) Urban polish only
D) Heroic couplet only
Ans: A) Individualism
33. Romantic poetry is often associated with interest in: (UGC NET)
A) Nature, childhood, and imagination
B) City clubs only
C) Political pamphlets only
D) Court satire only
Ans: A) Nature, childhood, and imagination
34. Another prose writer of the age known for familiar essays is: (PGTRB)
A) Charles Lamb
B) Samuel Johnson
C) John Dryden
D) Francis Bacon
Ans: A) Charles Lamb
35. Charles Lamb’s essays are collected as: (SET)
A) Essays of Elia
B) The Rambler
C) Spectator Papers
D) Table Talk
Ans: A) Essays of Elia
36. William Hazlitt is important in the age as a: (UGC NET)
A) Essayist and critic
B) Epic poet
C) Dramatist only
D) Lexicographer
Ans: A) Essayist and critic
37. Romantic prose often became more: (PGTRB)
A) Personal and emotional
B) Purely formal and impersonal
C) Entirely scientific
D) Medieval and alliterative
Ans: A) Personal and emotional
38. The Gothic novel also developed in this broader age through writers like: (SET)
A) Mrs. Radcliffe
B) Pope
C) Dryden
D) Congreve
Ans: A) Mrs. Radcliffe
39. The Age of Wordsworth is especially important because it: (UGC NET)
A) Restored imagination and emotion to poetry
B) Rejected nature completely
C) Re-established only courtly wit
D) Abolished lyric poetry
Ans: A) Restored imagination and emotion to poetry
40. Which pair is correctly matched? (PGTRB)
A) Wordsworth — The Prelude
B) Coleridge — Ode to the West Wind
C) Shelley — The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
D) Keats — Childe Harold
Ans: A) Wordsworth — The Prelude
41. Which statement is TRUE about the Age of Wordsworth? (SET)
A) It is mainly an age of heroic couplets and satire
B) It is an age of nature, imagination, lyricism, and emotional sincerity
C) It is the age of Restoration comedy
D) It rejects subjectivity completely
Ans: B) It is an age of nature, imagination, lyricism, and emotional sincerity
42. Wordsworth’s importance lies especially in his: (UGC NET)
A) Reform of poetic theory and practice
B) Writing of social comedy only
C) Lexicography only
D) Heroic tragedy only
Ans: A) Reform of poetic theory and practice
43. A key literary feature of the age is: (PGTRB)
A) Subjective lyricism
B) Pure objectivity only
C) Dramatic unities only
D) Satirical detachment only
Ans: A) Subjective lyricism
44. The Age of Wordsworth also encouraged interest in: (SET)
A) Medievalism and the supernatural
B) Only urban realism
C) Political pamphlets only
D) Heroic drama only
Ans: A) Medievalism and the supernatural
45. Which statement best suits The Age of Wordsworth? (UGC NET)
A) It is an age of classical restraint and satire only
B) It is an age of imagination, emotion, nature, and revolt against Neo-classicism
C) It is mainly an age of prose dictionary-making
D) It is the age of Puritan controversy
Ans: B) It is an age of imagination, emotion, nature, and revolt against Neo-classicism
46. The Age of Wordsworth prepared the way for: (PGTRB)
A) Full flowering of Romantic literature
B) Restoration comedy only
C) Anglo-Saxon poetry only
D) Neo-classical satire only
Ans: A) Full flowering of Romantic literature
47. Which statement best suits Wordsworth’s poetic ideal? (SET)
A) Poetry should imitate fashionable society
B) Poetry should express sincere feeling in simple language
C) Poetry should avoid nature completely
D) Poetry should use only classical diction
Ans: B) Poetry should express sincere feeling in simple language
48. Which statement best suits Coleridge’s role in Romanticism? (UGC NET)
A) He represented rational satire
B) He explored imagination, philosophy, and the supernatural
C) He rejected symbolism
D) He wrote only prose journalism
Ans: B) He explored imagination, philosophy, and the supernatural
49. Which statement best suits The Age of Wordsworth? (PGTRB)
A) It is a transitional and revolutionary literary age
B) It is purely medieval in character
C) It is the age of heroic couplets only
D) It rejects lyric poetry
Ans: A) It is a transitional and revolutionary literary age
50. Which statement best describes The Age of Wordsworth? (UGC NET)
A) It is the late 18th- and early 19th-century Romantic age centered on Wordsworth, nature, imagination, emotional sincerity, lyrical poetry, and revolt against Neo-classicism
B) It is the Restoration age of satire and heroic couplets
C) It is the Puritan age of Miltonic epic
D) It is the medieval age of Chaucerian realism
Ans: A) It is the late 18th- and early 19th-century Romantic age centered on Wordsworth, nature, imagination, emotional sincerity, lyrical poetry, and revolt against Neo-classicism
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