Lesson 4.1.1.5

4.1.1.5 AQA Anthology of Love Poetry through the Ages: Pre-1900 Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.1.1.5, AQA Anthology of Love Poetry through the Ages: Pre-1900: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 1: Love through the ages, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. How is a Petrarchan sonnet conventionally divided?

    • A sestet of six lines, then a rhyming couplet
    • Three quatrains of four lines, then a couplet
    • Two quatrains of six lines each, then a sestet
    • An octave of eight lines, then a sestet of six lines

  2. How many lines does a standard sonnet have?

    • Eighteen lines, in four stanzas of four
    • Fourteen lines, in iambic pentameter
    • Sixteen lines, with a couplet at the end
    • Twelve lines, in three equal quatrains

  3. Which form has three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet?

    • The villanelle, with two repeated refrains
    • The ode, a long lyric addressed to an object
    • The Shakespearean sonnet, with a final couplet
    • The Petrarchan sonnet, with an octave and sestet

  4. What is the effect of a speaker addressing a beloved directly in the second person?

    • It creates an impersonal narrative told from a distance
    • It creates intimacy and a sense of direct emotional address
    • It creates a legal argument about property rights
    • It creates a scientific account of human desire

  5. In love poetry, the carpe diem theme most typically urges the reader to:

    • avoid romantic attachment for the sake of peace
    • remember the past with grief and regret
    • accept the will of God in patient silence
    • seize the present, because youth and love are brief

  6. Which device compares a lover to a natural object such as a rose or a summer's day?

    • Litotes, which states a point by denying its opposite
    • Chiasmus, which reverses the order of phrases
    • Onomatopoeia, which imitates the sound of a thing
    • Metaphor or simile, which create a direct comparison

  7. When evaluating how a love poem presents loss, which question is most useful?

    • How many syllables does each line of the poem contain?
    • Which printer produced the anthology in which it appears?
    • How does the speaker's language move from hope towards grief?
    • Who owned the first copy of the poem in the library?

  8. A poem on jealousy in love most likely uses which kind of imagery?

    • harvest, plenty and images of warm abundance
    • suspicion, watchfulness and images of poison or decay
    • pure mathematical order and precise geometric shapes
    • economic trade, prices and the buying of goods

  9. What is an iambic pentameter line?

    • Five syllables, arranged in a single stressed pattern
    • Twelve syllables, with a pause at the centre
    • Fourteen syllables, with a repeated final word
    • Ten syllables, in five pairs of unstressed then stressed beats

  10. The volta in a sonnet is:

    • the turn of thought, often at the start of the sestet or final couplet
    • the rhyme scheme of the first quatrain
    • the refrain repeated at the end of each stanza
    • the title that is printed above the poem

  11. Which form uses only two refrains repeated across nineteen lines?

    • The ballad, a narrative form with a refrain
    • The villanelle, a fixed form with two repeated refrains
    • The elegy, a lament for the dead
    • The ode, a formal address in regular stanzas

  12. A dramatic monologue is best defined as:

    • a poem in which the poet addresses a god directly
    • a poem with no speaker and only descriptive detail
    • a poem written in the voice of the poet only
    • a poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener and reveals character

  13. Enjambment in a love poem is most likely to:

    • end every line with a full stop and a pause
    • carry a thought over the line break, creating momentum
    • stop the speaker from expressing any feeling
    • make the rhyme scheme regular and predictable

  14. A caesura is best described as:

    • a repeated sound at the start of words
    • a rhyme at the end of two lines
    • a comparison using the word like
    • a pause within a line, often marked by punctuation

  15. A conceit in a love poem is:

    • a plain account of the poet's biography
    • a list of the poem's rhyming words
    • an elaborate extended metaphor that links unlike things
    • a simple statement of a single fact

  16. Which technique involves addressing an absent person as if present?

    • apostrophe, which addresses an absent or imagined listener
    • zeugma, which links one word to two parts
    • antithesis, which sets two opposites side by side
    • litotes, which understates a point by negation

  17. What is the typical concern of a love poem about proximity and distance?

    • the speed of a stagecoach on a country road
    • how separation tests the strength and meaning of love
    • the rules of a feudal estate and its taxes
    • the design of a garden in a formal style

  18. Which statement describes a poem that treats love as a social taboo?

    • The speaker's love is hidden or forbidden by the conventions of the time
    • The speaker is entirely happy with no social constraint
    • The speaker celebrates a public marriage with a great feast
    • The speaker never refers to any other person in the poem

  19. The term persona in poetry refers to:

    • the voice or character adopted by the speaker, which may differ from the poet
    • the poet's own birth name printed on the title page
    • the layout of the printed page on the book
    • the publisher who arranged the anthology

  20. Which feature of a poem best supports an argument that love is presented as unstable?

    • A single unchanged metaphor repeated throughout
    • A fixed moral stated firmly at the end
    • A regular rhyme scheme in every stanza of the poem
    • Contradictory images and a shifting tone within the poem

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