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