HSA English Rank File Series – 2 Solved Model Question Paper

1. The only epic poem in English Literature is ...................................

• Answer: Paradise Lost by John Milton

• The epic poem Paradise Lost consisted of 10 books in the beginning and later got rearranged to 12 books.
• It was first printed in 1667.
• In Paradise Regained, Milton presented the restoration of man. It is plain and comprehensive.

     2. Where do we read "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

• Answer: In Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
• This elegy does not refer to anybody's death directly, but it laments the suppressed condition of the villagers.

     3. Shakespeare wrote ............ sonnets.

• Answer: 154
• The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, who is unknown.
• Sonnets 127-152 has been addressed to a dark lady.
• Shakespeare has also written two long narrative poem - Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594).

     4. Lyrical Ballads was published in the year .......................

• Answer:  1798
• Wordsworth and Coleridge brought out the first collection of Romantic poetry ie, Lyrical Ballads in 1798.
• There were 23 poems in the collection in which 4 poems were written by Coleridge. They are

      a) The Rime Ancient Mariner
      b) The Nightingale
      c) The Foster Mother's Tale
      d) The Dungeon

• Later Wordsworth added a preface to the poetic collection in 1800
• Some of Wordsworth's comments were criticized by Coleridge in Biographia Literaria.(1817)