GRE English Subject Test Study Guide
Review
1.Henry James major works and famous characters: The Ambassadors,
The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, The Bostonians, The Aspern
Papers (about a biographer of Jeffrey Aspern--a fictionalized Byron, who
comes to get some papers from the poet's former mistress and
daughter). Characters in his books: Isabel Archer, Maggie Verver, Daisy
Miller ( a flirtatious nouveau riche American girl in Europe) , Lambert
Strether, Merle, Osmond, Goodwood Stackpole.
2.Famous English Periodicals: Richard Steele founded the Tatler in 1709;
Steele and Addison founded The Spectator; Jonathan Swift--The
Examiner; Daniel De- foe--The Review; Samuel Johnson--The Rambler;
Eliza Haywood--The Female Spectator
3.Cleanth Brooks (Critic): New Criticism: paraphrase, irony, paradox
4.Harold Bloom (Critic): The Anxiety of Influence (a book of Criticism):
misreading or misprision
5.William Empson (Critic): Seven Types of Ambiguity; Some Versions of
Pastoral
6.T.S. Eliot (Critic): Criticism and the Individual Talent; The
Metaphysical Poets: objective correlative
7.Kenneth Burke (Critic): symbols, pentad, equipment for living
8.Alexandrine: a line of iambic hexameter--final line in a Spenserian
stanza
9.Alliteration: Use of repeated consonant or sound, usually at beginning
,of a series of words
10.Anthropomorphism: Assigning human attributes to nonhuman
things; ex. Aslan
11.Apostrophe: a speech addressed to someone not present, or to an
abstraction
12.Bildungsroman: novel of education; follows a young person through
naivete to experience and maturity
13.Caesura: the pause that breaks a line of Old English verse or any
deep pause in a line of verse
14.Decorum: neoclassical principle of drama; how a characters style of
speech is fitting with the character's station
15.Doggerel: a derogatory term describing poorly written poetry
16.epithalamium: a work, usually a poem, written to celebrate a wedding
17.Euphuism: Name comes from John Lyly's Euphues (1580). writing
that is self-consciously laden with elaborate figures of speech,
grandiose metaphors, mythological references, rhetorical questions,
18.Flat and Round Characters: terms of E.M. Forster's: flat
characters--those built around a single dominant trait; round--those
developed with psychological complexity
19.Georgic: dealing with working people in the countryside--comes
from Virgil's Georgics
20.Hamartia: the tragic flaw in a character--Aristotle's term
21.Homeric Epithet: a repeated descriptive phrase in epic: rosy-fingered
dawn
,22.Hudibrastic: (from Samuel Butler's (1613-1680. Not the Samuel
Butler who wrote the Way of All Flesh and Erewhon (1830-1900)
Hudibras) couplets of rhymed tetrameter lines--usually meant to be bad
poetry. Hudibras is a knight and Sir Ralpho is his squire.
23.Litotes: an understatement created through double negative
24.Metonymy: a term describing when a person or object is
represented by one single important feature
25.Neoclassical Unities: principles of dramatic structure adopted from
Aristotle's Poetics, revived in the 17th and 18th centuries: unity of time
(take place in one single day); unity of place (action takes place in one
single location); unity of action (one single plot)
26.Pastoral Elegy: a poem that is a lament for the dead sung by a
shepherd
27.Pastoral Literature: a work that deals with people in the countryside--
especially shepherds
28.Pathetic Fallacy: term of John Ruskin's; ascribing emotion or agency
to inani- mate objects
29.Personification: giving human qualities or forms to inanimate objects
30.Picaresque: a loosely-structured novel made up of scenes usually
following the adventures of a rogue--Huck Finn
31.Skeltonics: from John Skelton's poetry (1500s). Short lines, choppy
rhythm, pronounced repetitive end rhymes. Usually humorous poetry,
32.Sprung Rhythm: created by Gerard Manley Hopkins; fits any number
of sylla- bles in a line since the only significant ones are those that are
stressed
, 33.Synaesthesia: phrases that refer to an interplay of the senses: hot
pink; sun- burnt mirth
34.Synecdoche: a phrase that refers to a person or object by means of
a single important feature of that object or person
35.Voice: perspective from which a story is written--first person, third
person
36.Ballad Stanza: folk ballad style; rhyme scheme is abcb--Rime of
Ancient Mariner
37.In Memoriam stanza: four line of iambic tetrameter rhyming abba
38.Old English Verse: internal alliteration of lines and strong caesura in
middle of line
39.Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet: 14-line sonnet; first eight lines are the
octave; final six lines are the sestet; abbaabba cdecde
40.English or Shakespearean Sonnet: 14 lines; abab cdcd efef gg
41.Spenserian Sonnet: 14 lines; abab bcbc cdcd ee
42.Villanelle: 19 lines; repetition of first and third lines throughout
poem; rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa; Dylan Thomas--do
not go gentle
43.Sestina: 39 line poem of six stanzas of six lines each and a final
stanza of three lines. No rhyme. Certain words repeated at end of each
line.
44.Gerund: a verb acting as a noun, uses "ing" ending: sleeping
45.Participle: a verb acting as an adjective, usually ends in "ed"
46.Substantive: a group of words acting as a noun: Eating strawberries
outside is very messy
Review
1.Henry James major works and famous characters: The Ambassadors,
The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowl, The Bostonians, The Aspern
Papers (about a biographer of Jeffrey Aspern--a fictionalized Byron, who
comes to get some papers from the poet's former mistress and
daughter). Characters in his books: Isabel Archer, Maggie Verver, Daisy
Miller ( a flirtatious nouveau riche American girl in Europe) , Lambert
Strether, Merle, Osmond, Goodwood Stackpole.
2.Famous English Periodicals: Richard Steele founded the Tatler in 1709;
Steele and Addison founded The Spectator; Jonathan Swift--The
Examiner; Daniel De- foe--The Review; Samuel Johnson--The Rambler;
Eliza Haywood--The Female Spectator
3.Cleanth Brooks (Critic): New Criticism: paraphrase, irony, paradox
4.Harold Bloom (Critic): The Anxiety of Influence (a book of Criticism):
misreading or misprision
5.William Empson (Critic): Seven Types of Ambiguity; Some Versions of
Pastoral
6.T.S. Eliot (Critic): Criticism and the Individual Talent; The
Metaphysical Poets: objective correlative
7.Kenneth Burke (Critic): symbols, pentad, equipment for living
8.Alexandrine: a line of iambic hexameter--final line in a Spenserian
stanza
9.Alliteration: Use of repeated consonant or sound, usually at beginning
,of a series of words
10.Anthropomorphism: Assigning human attributes to nonhuman
things; ex. Aslan
11.Apostrophe: a speech addressed to someone not present, or to an
abstraction
12.Bildungsroman: novel of education; follows a young person through
naivete to experience and maturity
13.Caesura: the pause that breaks a line of Old English verse or any
deep pause in a line of verse
14.Decorum: neoclassical principle of drama; how a characters style of
speech is fitting with the character's station
15.Doggerel: a derogatory term describing poorly written poetry
16.epithalamium: a work, usually a poem, written to celebrate a wedding
17.Euphuism: Name comes from John Lyly's Euphues (1580). writing
that is self-consciously laden with elaborate figures of speech,
grandiose metaphors, mythological references, rhetorical questions,
18.Flat and Round Characters: terms of E.M. Forster's: flat
characters--those built around a single dominant trait; round--those
developed with psychological complexity
19.Georgic: dealing with working people in the countryside--comes
from Virgil's Georgics
20.Hamartia: the tragic flaw in a character--Aristotle's term
21.Homeric Epithet: a repeated descriptive phrase in epic: rosy-fingered
dawn
,22.Hudibrastic: (from Samuel Butler's (1613-1680. Not the Samuel
Butler who wrote the Way of All Flesh and Erewhon (1830-1900)
Hudibras) couplets of rhymed tetrameter lines--usually meant to be bad
poetry. Hudibras is a knight and Sir Ralpho is his squire.
23.Litotes: an understatement created through double negative
24.Metonymy: a term describing when a person or object is
represented by one single important feature
25.Neoclassical Unities: principles of dramatic structure adopted from
Aristotle's Poetics, revived in the 17th and 18th centuries: unity of time
(take place in one single day); unity of place (action takes place in one
single location); unity of action (one single plot)
26.Pastoral Elegy: a poem that is a lament for the dead sung by a
shepherd
27.Pastoral Literature: a work that deals with people in the countryside--
especially shepherds
28.Pathetic Fallacy: term of John Ruskin's; ascribing emotion or agency
to inani- mate objects
29.Personification: giving human qualities or forms to inanimate objects
30.Picaresque: a loosely-structured novel made up of scenes usually
following the adventures of a rogue--Huck Finn
31.Skeltonics: from John Skelton's poetry (1500s). Short lines, choppy
rhythm, pronounced repetitive end rhymes. Usually humorous poetry,
32.Sprung Rhythm: created by Gerard Manley Hopkins; fits any number
of sylla- bles in a line since the only significant ones are those that are
stressed
, 33.Synaesthesia: phrases that refer to an interplay of the senses: hot
pink; sun- burnt mirth
34.Synecdoche: a phrase that refers to a person or object by means of
a single important feature of that object or person
35.Voice: perspective from which a story is written--first person, third
person
36.Ballad Stanza: folk ballad style; rhyme scheme is abcb--Rime of
Ancient Mariner
37.In Memoriam stanza: four line of iambic tetrameter rhyming abba
38.Old English Verse: internal alliteration of lines and strong caesura in
middle of line
39.Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet: 14-line sonnet; first eight lines are the
octave; final six lines are the sestet; abbaabba cdecde
40.English or Shakespearean Sonnet: 14 lines; abab cdcd efef gg
41.Spenserian Sonnet: 14 lines; abab bcbc cdcd ee
42.Villanelle: 19 lines; repetition of first and third lines throughout
poem; rhyme scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa; Dylan Thomas--do
not go gentle
43.Sestina: 39 line poem of six stanzas of six lines each and a final
stanza of three lines. No rhyme. Certain words repeated at end of each
line.
44.Gerund: a verb acting as a noun, uses "ing" ending: sleeping
45.Participle: a verb acting as an adjective, usually ends in "ed"
46.Substantive: a group of words acting as a noun: Eating strawberries
outside is very messy
