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.

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"

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.

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.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"