20 multiple-choice (MCQ / objective) questions from this chapter, in the common exam-style shapes. Every question comes with an explanation along with the answer, so you remember why the option is correct, not just which one it is.
1 Direct Questions
Direct Questions
- 1 markWho wrote the poem ‘A Thing of Beauty’?
(A) John Keats(B) Kamala Das(C) Pablo Neruda(D) Robert Frost - 1 markWhat was Keats trained to be before he devoted himself wholly to poetry?
(A) A lawyer(B) A teacher(C) A surgeon(D) A soldier - 1 mark‘A Thing of Beauty’ is an excerpt from which longer poem by Keats?
(A) Ode on a Grecian Urn(B) Hyperion(C) Endymion; A Poetic Romance(D) The Eve of St Agnes - 1 markWho is Cynthia, in the Greek legend behind the poem ‘Endymion’?
(A) A shepherdess(B) Endymion’s mother(C) A forest nymph(D) The Moon Goddess - 1 markWhat are ‘we’ described as wreathing, every morrow, in the poem?
(A) A crown of gold(B) A garment of leaves(C) A flowery band(D) A rope of vines - 1 markWhat does the word ‘brake’, glossed by the book, mean?
(A) A sudden stop(B) A thick mass of ferns(C) A broken branch(D) A type of tree - 1 markWhat is described as ‘rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms’?
(A) The green world of the daffodils(B) The cooling covert of the rills(C) The bower of sleep(D) The mid forest brake - 1 markWhat does ‘the grandeur of the dooms we have imagined for the mighty dead’ mean?
(A) Real historical records of the dead(B) The greatness we imagine surrounding the fate of great people who have died(C) Ancient burial rituals(D) Ghost stories - 1 markWhich poetic device is used in ‘Some shape of beauty moves away the pall / From our dark spirits’?
(A) Personification(B) Simile(C) Hyperbole(D) Onomatopoeia - 1 markWhat does ‘covert’, as in ‘a cooling covert’, mean?
(A) A sheltered, hidden spot(B) A loud noise(C) A type of flower(D) A steep hill - 1 markWhich poetic device names a whole series of examples one after another to build up a single impression?
(A) Personification(B) Symbolism(C) Catalogue (listing) technique(D) Imagery - 1 markWhich poetic device is used when the poem describes the sun, moon, trees and daffodils so vividly that the reader can picture them?
(A) Enjambment(B) Alliteration(C) Metaphor(D) Imagery
2 Assertion-Reason
Assertion-Reason
- 1 markAssertion (A): The poem is written entirely in rhyming couplets.
Reason (R): Every pair of consecutive lines in the extract rhymes with each other.
(A) A is true, R is true, and R is the correct explanation of A(B) A is true, R is true, but R is not the correct explanation of A(C) A is true but R is false(D) A is false but R is true
3 Match the Following
Match the Following
- 1 markMatch the word in Column A with its meaning in Column B.
Column A: 1. rills 2. brake 3. boon 4. pall
Column B: (i) a thick mass of ferns (ii) small streams (iii) a dark covering associated with gloom (iv) a blessing or benefit
(A) 1-i, 2-ii, 3-iii, 4-iv(B) 1-ii, 2-i, 3-iv, 4-iii(C) 1-iii, 2-iv, 3-i, 4-ii(D) 1-iv, 2-iii, 3-ii, 4-i - 1 markMatch the poetic device in Column A with its example from the poem in Column B.
Column A: 1. Personification 2. Alliteration 3. Metaphor 4. Symbolism
Column B: (i) ‘a flowery band to bind us to the earth’ (ii) ‘Such the sun’ (iii) ‘Some shape of beauty moves away the pall’ (iv) ‘an endless fountain of immortal drink’
(A) 1-i, 2-ii, 3-iii, 4-iv(B) 1-ii, 2-iii, 3-iv, 4-i(C) 1-iii, 2-ii, 3-iv, 4-i(D) 1-iv, 2-i, 3-ii, 4-iii
4 Arrange in the Correct Order
Arrange in the Correct Order
- 1 markArrange the following lines in the order they occur in the poem.
(1) ‘Some shape of beauty moves away the pall’ (2) ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’ (3) ‘An endless fountain of immortal drink’ (4) ‘Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon’
(A) 1, 2, 3, 4(B) 3, 4, 1, 2(C) 2, 1, 4, 3(D) 2, 4, 1, 3
5 Odd One Out
Odd One Out
- 1 markWhich of these is the odd one out?
(A) Personification(B) Alliteration(C) Enjambment(D) Sonnet
6 Passage-Based Questions
Passage-Based Questions
Passage
A thing of beauty is a joy forever
Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness; but will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness; but will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
- 1 markAccording to this passage, what will a thing of beauty never do?
(A) Grow more lovely with time(B) Lose its charm and vanish completely(C) Keep a bower quiet for us(D) Give sweet dreams
Passage
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
- 1 markWhat does this passage compare beauty to, in its final image?
(A) A blooming flower(B) A never-ending, divine spring of drink(C) A guiding star(D) A protective shield
7 True / False
True / False
- 1 markRead the statements and choose the option with the correct True/False combination.
(a) Keats trained to be a surgeon before becoming a poet.
(b) The poem is a complete poem, not an excerpt.
(c) The poem is written in rhyming couplets.
(d) The book’s glossary explains four words: rills, brake, despondence, and dearth.
(A) (a) T (b) T (c) F (d) F(B) (a) T (b) F (c) T (d) F(C) (a) F (b) T (c) F (d) T(D) (a) F (b) F (c) T (d) T
Answer Key and Explanations
Direct Questions
- (A) The NCERT book names John Keats as the poet.
- (C) The book says Keats ‘trained to be a surgeon’ before turning fully to poetry.
- (C) The book states this is ‘an excerpt from his poem ‘Endymion; A Poetic Romance.’’
- (D) The book calls her ‘Cynthia, the Moon Goddess.’
- (C) Line 7: ‘A flowery band to bind us to the earth.’
- (B) The book’s own glossary: ‘brake : a thick mass of ferns.’
- (D) Lines 18-19: ‘the mid forest brake, / Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms.’
- (B) Lines 20-21 describe an imagined greatness (‘grandeur’) attached to the fates (‘dooms’) of the mighty dead, not a literal historical record.
- (A) Beauty is given the human ability to actively move and push something away, which is personification.
- (A) ‘Covert’ (line 17) means a sheltered, hidden spot; the rills make one for themselves against the heat.
- (C) Keats lists the sun, moon, trees, daffodils, rills, forest brake, mighty dead and lovely tales one after another; naming a series of examples like this is a catalogue or listing technique.
- (D) Descriptive language that appeals to the senses, mainly sight, is imagery; the poem’s pictures of the sun, moon, trees and daffodils are all visual imagery.
Assertion-Reason
- (B) Both are true, but R only restates what a couplet is (forever/never, keep/sleep, breathing/wreathing, and so on); it describes the form and does not explain why the poem has it. The answer is (B).
Match the Following
- (B) rills = small streams (ii); brake = a thick mass of ferns (i); boon = a blessing (iv); pall = a dark covering of gloom (iii). That is 1-ii, 2-i, 3-iv, 4-iii, option (B).
- (C) Personification: beauty ‘moves away the pall’ (iii); alliteration: ‘Such the sun’ (ii); metaphor: the ‘endless fountain’ (iv); symbolism: the ‘flowery band’ (i), read as a symbol of our renewed attachment to life (the poem does not name it a symbol). That is 1-iii, 2-ii, 3-iv, 4-i, option (C).
Arrange in the Correct Order
- (C) Line 1 is the opening (2); line 12 is ‘moves away the pall’ (1); line 14 is ‘Trees old, and young’ (4); line 23 is ‘An endless fountain’ (3). That is 2, 1, 4, 3, option (C).
Odd One Out
- (D) Personification, alliteration and enjambment are all devices this extract actually uses. A sonnet is a poetic form, not a device found in this poem, so it is the odd one out.
Passage-Based Questions
- (B) The passage says beauty ‘will never / Pass into nothingness’, that is, it will never lose its charm and vanish. The other three options are all things it DOES do (‘Its loveliness increases’, ‘will keep / A bower quiet for us’, ‘a sleep / Full of sweet dreams’).
- (B) The passage’s closing image: ‘An endless fountain of immortal drink, / Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink’, a never-ending, divine spring of drink.
True / False
- (B) (a) True, matches the book. (b) False, it is an excerpt from ‘Endymion.’ (c) True, the whole extract rhymes in couplets. (d) False, the book glosses only rills and brake. The pattern T, F, T, F is option (B).
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