R. H. Dana, Jr. (1815-1882)

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882) was an American lawyer and politician. For the GRE Literature exam, all you need to know is that:

1) Ralph Waldo Emerson was his school teacher, and
2) He wrote Two Years Before the Mast
-Account of his travels around the world as a common sailor
-Highlights the suffering of poor, oppressed sailors
-Quickly became a bestseller

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English Modernist novelist and essayist. She was one of the major figures of the Modernist movement.

She was a pioneer of the modern stream-of-consciousness techniques, though in her hands the effect is less pronounced as in other modernist works, such as Joyce's Ulysses.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Virginia Woolf. In each case, if you haven't read the book already, a general knowledge of plot, character, and style will suffice.

1. Mrs. Dalloway
-1 day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, in post-WWI England
-A famous example of stream of consciousness
2. To the Lighthouse
-Follows the Ramsay family, plus Lily Briscoe, before, during, and after WWI.
3. A Room of One's Own
-Book-length essay on barriers faced by woman writers of literature.
-Hypothetical "Judith Shakespeare;" coined the term "Oxbridge"
-Examines Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot in detail
-Tone is heavily ironic/sarcastic

There's the off chance that the GRE folks will expect you to know that Woolf, who could be more than a bit haughty, once dismissed Joyce's Ulysses as "illiterate" and "underbred."

If you're interested in reading more, I recommend starting with this annotated To the Lighthouse.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was a British Victorian poet and humanist critic.

Besides familiarity with "Dover Beach" (his most famous poem), for the GRE Literature Exam, it's enough to know that he was a Classicist with a special fondness for the Greeks, his critical works often have moral or ethical overtones, many of his critical works deal with strongly personal themes, and he liked to bash philistines.

1. "Dover Beach"
-Often seen as an early example of modern sentiments.
-Laments the loss of (religious) faith.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a British Victorian essayist, philosopher, and political economist. He was a classical liberal and a leading proponent of utilitarianism.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with J. S. Mill. In each case, a summary knowledge of the content will suffice.

1. On Liberty
-Most famous for its concept of the tyranny of the majority.
2. The Subjection of Women
-Co-written by his wife; an early argument (1869) for the equality of the sexes.
3. Autobiography
-All you need to know is that it includes an extended account of a bout of depression ("melancholia"); the GRE folks like to trip you up with this one, since it's not typical Mill.
4. "What is Poetry"
-Link goes to a summary of the central arguments.

John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was a British Victorian essayist and theologian. He began his career in the Anglican church and later became a Roman Catholic cardinal.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Newman. For each of the works below, a general knowledge of the content will suffice.

1. Apologia Pro Vita Sua
-Newman's explanation of his decision to convert to Catholicism.
2. The Idea of a University (link to full text--skim only)
-Outlining a Catholic approach to education and the liberal arts

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish Victorian essayist and satirist. He's most famous for calling economics "the dismal science."

Sartor Resartus is the work most likely to appear on the GRE Literature Exam.

Sartor Resartus (Latin, meaning roughly "The Tailor Re-tailored" or "The Tailor Re-clothed") is intentionally difficult to classify: it flits between satire and serious philosophy, between fact and fiction. The word was published in Boston with a preface by Emerson, where the work had a major effect on Transcendentalism.

For the exam, it's usually enough to be able to recognize the following characters and keywords as belonging to Carlyle's Sartor Resartus:

-Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (Latin, "God-born," and German, "Devil-shit")
-The Wanderer (another name for Teufelsdröckh)
-The Everlasting Yea (roughly, spiritual faith)
-The Everlasting No (roughly, spiritual doubt or cynicism)
-Weissnichtwo (Teufelsdröckh's hometown; German, "know not where")

If you want to go deeper, I recommend the Oxford World's Classics Edition.

Five-day Hiatus

The GRE Literature Study Blog will take a five-day break from new posts (from today, 3.22, until Friday, 3.27), during which time blog's keepers will be out of touch. Stay tuned for more study cards after the break!

"Ulysses" (poem)

"Ulysses" (1833, pub. 1842) is a dramatic monologue by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is almost guaranteed to appear on the GRE Literature exam.

For the test, know that Ulysses serves as a kind of epilogue to Homer's Odyssey. The poem takes place three years after Odysseus returns to Ithaca, at which point Odysseus begins to yearn for adventure again, though he doubts his strength in his old age.

You should know the following lines well:

"It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me."

"Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was an English Victorian poet and one of the most popular English poets of all time. Example of his work, often identifiable by its classical and Arthurian influences, are almost guaranteed to show up on the GRE Literature test.

For the test, associate the following works with Tennyson. For In Memoriam A.H.H, a summary and an excerpt will suffice; poems in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "Ulysses"
-An imagined epilogue to Homer's Odyssey; in blank verse
2. "Break, break, break"
3. "The Lotos-Eaters"
-Spenserian stanzas; an episode from Homer's Odyssey
4. In Memoriam A.H.H.
-The "In Memoriam" stanza: ABBA iambic tetrameter
5. "The Lady of Shalott"
-Arthurian
6. "Mariana"
7. "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
-Probably his most popular, but unlikely to appear on the exam.

"To His Coy Mistress" (1681)

"To His Coy Mistress" (1681), by Metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), is almost guaranteed to appear on the GRE Literature exam.

The poem, an injunction to the speaker's mistress to forfeit her virginity in light of the couple's mortality, is often interpreted as a parody of the Cavalier style, marked as such by its metaphysical themes.

The poem is written in iambic tetrameter couplets.

Know the following by memory:

"But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity."

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Robert Burns (1759-1796) was a Scottish poet influential in the beginnings of the Romantic movement. He wrote poems in English, Scots, and Scottish dialect. Outside of Scottish and literary circles, he is best known as the author of "Auld Lang Syne."

Don't spend too much time on Burns--if you see Scottish-looking spellings, and Burns is a choice, pick him. However, it is worth at least skimming the following poems before the GRE Literature exam, and some of them are quite fun to read.

1. "A Red, Red Rose"
2. "Tam O'Shanter: A Tale"
-long; written in Scots; link goes to summary
3. "Ae Fond Kiss"
-Written in Scottish dialect
4. "Scots Wha Hae"
-Written in Scots; was an unofficial national anthem of Scotland

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1722-1834)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1722-1834) was a major British Romantic poet and a close friend of William Wordsworth. He and Wordsworth are both considered "Lake Poets."

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Coleridge. Works in bold should be read twice. For the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and the Biographia Literaria, a summary will suffice.

1. "Frost at Midnight"
2. "On Donne's Poetry"
3. "Kubla Khan"
4. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
-In ballad stanzas.
5. Biographia Literaria

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1884-1889)

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1884-1889) was a British Victorian poet. He converted to Catholicism and became a Jesuit priest. He has been more popular in the 20th century than he was in the 19th.

He's known for formal experimentation, especially with prosody. His sprung rhythm gives his works a very unique sound.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Gerard Manley Hopkins. Poems in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "Carrion Comfort"
2. "The Windhover, to Christ our Lord"
3. "Pied Beauty"
4. "Spring & Fall"
5. "Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend"

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was a modern American poet. The GRE folks will occasionally expect you to know that, like contemporary Wallace Stevens, he wasn't a professional poet--Williams was a pediatrician.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with William Carlos Williams. Read each poem at least once; poems in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "Spring and all"
2. "Aspodel, that greeny flower" (excerpt)
3. "Tract"
4. "The Red Wheelbarrow"
5. "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) was a major American modernist poet. The GRE folks will expect you to know that he worked for an insurance company in Hartford--he wasn't a professional poet.

*Wallace Stevens is almost guaranteed to appear on the exam.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Wallace Stevens. Each poem should be read at least once; poems in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
2. "The Anecdote of the Jar"
3. "The Emperor of Ice Cream"
4. "The Snow Man"

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet and Pulitzer Prize winner. His work usually features colloquial language and depictions of rural life in early 20th century New England coupled with complex social or philosophical themes.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Robert Frost. Read each poem at least once; poems in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "Mending Wall"
2. "Design"
3. "Meeting and Passing"
4. "Mowing"
5. "Spring Pools"
6. "Once by the Pacific" (sonnet in 7 couplets)

("Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Road Not Taken" are usually considered too well-known for inclusion on the GRE Literature exam.)

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American poet and two-time Pulitzer prize winner--once for his poetry and once for a biography of Lincoln.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following poems with Carl Sandburg. Read each poem at least once before the test.

1. "Chicago"
-epithet: "hog butcher for the world"
-looks more like a Ginsburg poem than a typical Frost poem
2. "Fog"

Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

Robert Lowell (1917-1977) was a major postwar American poet and the founder of the confessionalist school. He taught Anne Sexton & Sylvia Plath; he was friends with, but often criticized by, Elizabeth Bishop.

Robert Lowell is slightly more likely than other late-20th-century American poets to appear on the GRE Literature exam. Read the poems below at least once; poems in bold should be read at least twice.

1. "The Drunken Fisherman"
2. "Skunk Hour (for Elizabeth Bishop)"
3. "Mr. Edwards and the Spider"
-A reference to the colonial American preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards.

John Milton (1608-1674)

John Milton (1608-1674) was a major English poet and writer of the Commonwealth period. He is guaranteed to show up on the GRE Literature exam.

His two most important works are also his longest & most famous:

1. Paradise Lost
-Distinctive style: Latinate, syntactically-complex, heavily-enjambed blank verse
2. Areopagitica (treatise against censorship)

If you're doing any heavy reading to prepare for the GRE, and you haven't read them before, these should be on your list. You can get both in one volume if you buy the Norton Critical Edition.

Otherwise, you can rely on summaries and a sense of the styles of the works.

One or two of the following works may also appear on the exam. The poems listed in bold are particularly likely to show up. Read the short works at least once. For the long ones, simply read the summaries.

1. "On Shakespeare"
2. "When I Consider How My Life Is Spent"
-On Milton's blindness
3. "How Soon Hath Time"
4. "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont" (sonnet)
5. Comus
-An early masque; young girl seduced by supernatural being
6. Of Education
-A treatise in support of the liberal arts
7. Samson Agonistes
-Play; Hebrew Samson, after betrayal by Delilah
8. Lycidas (long--read excerpts)
-Most famous example of the pastoral elegy; to colleague Edward King
9. Paradise Regained
-The sequel to Paradise Lost; temptation of Christ; not terribly important

"My Last Duchess"

"My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue in 28 heroic couplets by the Victorian poet Robert Browning (1812-1889). Browning was particularly renowned for dramatic verse.

In the poem, the speaker, an Italian duke, describes a portrait of his last wife, whom he may or may not have had murdered. His audience is there to negotiate a new marriage for the duke. (Wikipedia summary here.)

This poem is almost guaranteed to appear on the GRE Literature test--read it multiple times. Know the famous lines below by heart:

-"She had a heart--how shall I say?--too soon made glad"
-"I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together"

Thomas Carew (1595-1640)

Thomas Carew (1595-1640) was an English Cavalier poet, whose works were usually typically sexual.

However, his one work likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam is an exception:

"An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. John Donne"

Because the GRE is in love with poems about other poets, read this one at least twice.

Post-1945 American Poetry

In general, the GRE Literature test does not weight post-1945 literature heavily. The poets below are most likely to appear in a process-of-elimination ID section. It's enough to recognize the names and read the listed poems at least once. (Poems in bold should be read multiple times.)

1. Sylvia Plath
-"Daddy"
-"The Mirror"
2. John Berryman
3. Amiri Baraka
-"Poem for Half-White College Student"
4. Anne Sexton
-"The Truth the Dead Know"
5. Elizabeth Bishop
-"One Art"
6. Robert Lowell (link to GRE Lit Blog post)
7. Gwendolyn Brooks
-"The Mother"
-"Gay Chaps at the Bar"
-"We Real Cool"

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of African-American arts and letters in in 1920s and 1930s.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following writers with the Harlem Renaissance.

For authors in bold, a general familiarity with their works and and biographies is preferred. For the other authors listed, knowing the titles of one major work each will suffice.

1. James Baldwin
-Notes on a Native Son
-Go Tell It on the Mountain
2. Richard Wright
3. Ralph Ellison
-The Invisible Man
4. Langston Hughes
5. Zora Neale Hurston
-Their Eyes Were Watching God (parallels with the Odyssey)
6. Countee Cullen
7. James Weldon Johnson

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was a Welsh-born modernist poet. He also wrote short stories and scripts. One or two of the poems below are almost guaranteed to show up on the GRE Literature test.

For the test, associate the following works with Dylan Thomas. Poems in bold should be read at least twice before the exam.

1. "Do not go gentle into that good night"
-Know that this poem is a villanelle.
2. "And Death Shall Have No Dominion"
3. "Fern Hill"
-Known for its very lush imagery.

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Andrew Marvell (1621-1628) was an English metaphysical poet and a contemporary of John Donne's.

For the GRE Literature test, associate the following works with Andrew Marvell. Works in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "To his Coy Mistress"
2. "The Definition of Love"
3. "On Milton's Paradise Lost"
4. The "Mower" poems
-"The Mower, against Gardens"
-"Damon the Mower"
-"The Mower to the Glo-worms"
-"The Mower's Song"
-"The Garden"
5. "An Horatian Ode: Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland"

John Dryden (1631-1700)

John Dryden (1631-1700) was a poet, critic, and playwright in Restoration England.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate Dryden with the works below. For "Absalom & Achitophel" and All For Love, simply read summaries plus one or two short excerpts. Poems in bold should be read multiple times before the exam.

1. "MacFlecknoe" (Wikipedia--link to full text at bottom)
2. "Absalom & Achitophel"
3. "Epigram on Milton"
4. "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day"
5. "All For Love" (Antony & Cleopatra)

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) was an American-born modernist poet who spent most of his career in the United Kingdom. He is one of the foremost figures of modernism.

Associate the following works with T.S. Eliot. For The Waste Land and Four Quartets, read a short excerpt to get a feel for the style of the work. Read the other poems at least once before the exam. The quotes listed below are especially likely to appear on the test.

1. The Waste Land
"April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land"
2. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Let us go then, you and I, / when the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table"
3. Four Quartets
"Time present and time past . . . all time is unredeemable"
4. "The Journey of the Maji"
-Written after Eliot's conversion to Christianity

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was an American-born modernist poet who spent most of his career in Europe. Many of his works demonstrate Pound's fascination with Asia.

Associate the following works with Ezra Pound. For The Cantos and "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley," read a short excerpt to get a feel for the style of the work. Read the other poems at least once before the exam.

1. The Cantos
-multilingual (includes Chinese characters); wide geographical spread; many unexplained references; extremely difficult; written from 1915-1962
2. "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley"
-Pound debates Mauberly on poetry; both are facets of Pound
3. "The Lake Isle"
-A parody of Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
4. "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter"
-Chinese subject matter
5. "In a Station of the Metro"
-Haiku (the title is the first line)

W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was a British-born modernist poet, though he spent most of his career in the United States. His body of work is hard to characterize briefly, since it encompasses a wide variety of tones, themes, and forms. He particularly liked putting modern spins on traditional verse forms and made frequent use of irregular rhyme schemes.

Associate the following works with Auden. Read each at least once before the exam. Poems in bold should be read multiple times.

1. "Musee des Beaux Arts"
-see also William Carlos Williams, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"
2. "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
3. "Lay Your Sleeping Head, My Love"

World Literatures

This is the category page for world literatures. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

20th Century
Marcel Proust
Rainer Maria Rilke

19th Century
Arthur Rimbaud
Anton Chekhov

18th Century

Renaissance

Classical Literature

This is the category page for Classical literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Poets

Playwrights

Individual Works

Medieval English Literature

This is the category page for Medieval English literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Middle English

Old English

Renaissance English Literature

This is the category page for Elizabethan English literature. Note that this period includes works ans authors from slightly before and slightly after Elizabeth's reign.

This page will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Poets
John Skelton

Playwrights

Individual Works

17th Century (British)

This is the category page for 17th-century British literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Metaphysical Poets
Andrew Marvell
George Herbert

John Milton

Cavalier Poets
Robert Herrick
Richard Lovelace
Thomas Carew

Playwrights

Individual Works
"To the memory of my beloved master William Shakespeare"
"An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of St. Paul's, John Donne"
"To his Coy Mistress"

Colonial American Literature

This is the category page for Colonial American literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog--though know that, in general, the colonial period does not commonly appear on the GRE Literature test.

Poets

Novelists

Individual Works

18th Century (British)

This is the category page for 18th-century British literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Poets
Robert Burns
(William Wordsworth)
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Novelists
Henry Fielding
Jonathan Swift
The Gothic Novelists

Other
Samuel Johnson

Individual Works
Gulliver's Travels
(The Lucy poems)
"Tintern Abbey"
"Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard"

19th Century (American)

This is the category page for 19th-century American literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Poets
Walt Whitman

Novelists
Herman Melville

Individual Works
Two Years Before the Mast, R.H. Dana

19th Century (British)

This is the category page for 19th-century British literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Poets
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lord Byron

Gerard Manley Hopkins
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Matthew Arnold
Walter Savage Landor
Algernon Charles Swinburne
A.E. Housman

Novelists
Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Samuel Butler
George Eliot
Henry James

Essayists
Thomas Carlyle
John Henry Newman
John Stuart Mill
Matthew Arnold
Charles Lamb

Individual Poems
The Lucy poems
The Prelude
("Tintern Abbey")
"My Last Duchess"
"Ulysses"

Individual Prose Works
Imaginary Conversations

20th Century (American)

This is the category page for 20th-century American literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

The Harlem Renaissance
Post-1945 American Poetry

Poets
Ezra Pound
T.S. Eliot
Robert Lowell
Robert Frost
Wallace Stevens
William Carlos Williams

Novelists
Edith Wharton
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Saul Bellow
Eudora Welty

Individual Works

20th Century (British)

This is the category page for 20th-century British literature. It will grow as more entries are added to the GRE Literature Study Blog.

Poets
W. B. Yeats
W. H. Auden
Dylan Thomas

Novelists
Virginia Woolf
E.M. Forster

Essayists
Virginia Woolf

Individual Works

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish modernist poet and playwright influential in the Irish Literary Revival. He was also a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre.

Yeats is very common on the GRE. You'll recognize many postwar book titles among his poems--Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem, for example, and McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.

Associate the following works with Yeats. Short poems should be read at least once before the exam. Poems in bold should be read multiple times.

1. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (parodied by Pound)
2. "When You Are Old"
3. "The Wild Swans at Coole"
4. "The Second Coming"
5. "Sailing to Byzantium"
6. "Leda and the Swan"
7. "Crazy Jane Talks With the Bishop"
8. "Among Schoolchildren"
9. "The Dolls"

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was an American novelist and short fiction writer of the Lost Generation. He coined the term "The Jazz Age."

For the exam, be familiar with the general plots and characters of the following works.

1. The Great Gatsby
-Nick Carraway (narrator), Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan
2. This Side of Paradise
-Amory Blaine, Stephen Blaine, Beatrice O'Hara
3. Tender is the Night
-Dick Diver (psychoanalyst) & Nicole (patient, then wife)
4. "Bablyon Revisited"
-Charlie & Helen Wales. Father tries to regain custody after fight with alcoholism.

If you want to read more and haven't read Gatsby, I recommend Tender is the Night.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was one of the fathers of the English novel. He was also an established dramatist. His works are generally comic and frequently ironic. He was one of the first English novelists who (unlike, say, Defoe and Richardson) didn't try to pretend that his works were actual memoirs or letters.

Associate the following works with Henry Fielding.

Shamela and Joseph Andrews
-Both parodies of Richardson's Pamela.
-Joseph Andrews, Shamela's brother, appears to be resistant to losing his virginity.

Tom Jones
-Mocks the moral rigidity of contemporary writers.
-Characters: Tom, Squire Allworthy, Blifil, Lady Bridget, Sophia Western.
*Opening passage commonly appears on the exam.

If you want to read more, you can't really go wrong with any Fielding, but Joseph Andrews and Shamela, usually published together, are shorter.

"To the memory of my beloved master, William Shakespeare"

"To the memory of my beloved master, William Shakespeare," by Ben Jonson (1623)

Written in heroic couplets. Thick with comparisons to prominent poets, especially classical.

The source of many famous quotes on Shakespeare:
-"He was not of an age, but for all time"
-"Soul of the age"
-"Thou art a monument without a tomb"
-"For a good poet's made, as well as born"
-"Sweet Swan of Avon"

*This poem is an ETS favorite. Read it several times before the exam.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) was a Cavalier poet. His work generally exemplifies the Cavalier style. As you might have guessed by the titles, the Poems for Julia are particularly raunchy.

Associate the following works with Robert Herrick. Read each at least once before the exam.

1. "Corrina's Going a-Maying"

2. "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"

3. The Poems for Julia (multiple--the important ones are below)
-"To Julia"
-"Upon Julia's Clothes"
-"Upon Julia's Breasts"
-"The Night Piece, to Julia"
-"Upon Julia's Voice"

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was an English Romantic poet. His wife was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

Associate the following works with Shelley. Short poems should be read at least once before the exam. Poems in bold should be read multiple times.

1. "Adonais: Elegy on the Death of John Keats"
-long; Spenserian stanzas; link goes to Wikipedia entry
2. "Ode to the West Wind"
-terza rima/sonnet hybrid
3. "Ozymandias"
-sonnet
4. "To a Skylark"
5. "To Wordsworth"
6. "Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni"
-long ode; link goes to Wikipedia entry

John Keats (1795-1821)

John Keats (1795-1821) was one of the primary poets of the English Romantic period.

Associate the following works with John Keats. Short poems should be read at least once before the exam. Poems in bold should be read multiple times.

1. Endymion
-long; link goes to Wikipedia
2. "The Eve of St. Agnes"
-long; Spenserian stanzas; includes "La belle dame sans merci;" Madeline & Porphyro; link goes to Wikipedia
3. "Isabella: or, the Pot of Basil"
4. "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
5. "Ode on Melancholy"
6. "Ode to a Nightingale"
7. "Ode to Autumn"
8. "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
-Italian sonnet

Know that Keats wrote many odes.

How to Study

The GRE Literature Study Blog is designed to help you prepare for the GRE Subject Test in English Literature. It is not affiliated in any way with ETS (the company that administers the GRE tests) or with the Princeton Review, publishers of Cracking the GRE Literature Test.

The goal of this site is to organize the vast amounts of information tested on the GRE Literature test into logical, cross-linked, manageable chunks. Each entry represents one of the hundreds of flashcards I used to study for the GRE Literature exam. I followed the methods described here and earned a score in the 99th percentile; there's no guarantee it will work for everyone, but it surely worked for me!

Here's how I recommend you study:

1. Assess (1/2 day):

Start with a sample test from ETS (PDF). Take it cold, under your best approximation of the actual test conditions, and use it to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Also, don't panic--this is a very difficult test, but you're in control: studying harder will increase your score.

2. The Quick Fix (1-2 weeks):

Buy a copy of Cracking the GRE Literature Test. It outlines the most effecient way to boost your score quickly: minimum work for maximum output.

However, the Princeton Review method won't be enough to catapult you into the uppermost percentiles: the difference between the 80th and 90th percentiles is a whole lot of work for a small handful of answers.

3. Assess (1/2 day):

Use the Princeton Review practice test to identify any remaining weaknesses.

4. Plan Readings (time will vary):

You obviously won't have time to read everything that might show up on the GRE Literature Exam--many people couldn't do that in a lifetime, and the works tested are so eclectic that trying to read them all would be a waste of time.

Instead, you should use this list to set some reasonable goals for your reading. The good news is that, if there's anything in the top 20 or so that you haven't read yet, it's probably worth your while to read it before you go to grad school.

Note: for major works and authors, I've provided links to my recommendend editions.

5. Don't get sucked into Dickens or Shakespeare!

They have such an enormous volume of work relative to the number of questions about them that will appear on the exam, and so many of the questions on them can be answered by summary knowledge of their major works, that you're better off reading something by an author you're completely unfamiliar with.

6. Use This Site for the Rest

For all those authors and works you won't be studying in-depth, the short summaries and links provided on this website will usually be enough.

I recommend printing the entries you have trouble with and using them as flash cards. Keep them with you wherever you go--the bus, the subway, theory lectures--every repetition counts!

Occasionally, you might come across an author who strikes your fancy (I came to appreciate Dylan Thomas much more than previously through my GRE Literature studies). If you'd like to read more, I've tried to provide links to my preferred editions. That is, if I have a favorite edition--it's not like I, or anyone else for that matter, actually READS all of these books!