FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR
RECRUITMENT TO POSTS IN BPS-17 UNDER
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2009
ENGLISH LITERATURE, PAPER-I
(PART-I) 30 MINUTES MAXIMUM MARKS:20 TIME ALLOWED: (PART-II) 2 HOURS & 30 MINUTES MAXIMUM MARKS:80
NOTE: (i) First attempt PART-I (MCQ) on separate Answer Sheet which shall be taken back after 30 minutes.
(ii) Overwriting/cutting of the options/answers will not be given credit.
PART – I (MCQ) (COMPULSORY)
Q.1. Select the best option/answer and fill in the appropriate box on the Answer Sheet. (20)
(i) Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate in:
(a) 1817 (b) 1839 (c) 1843 (d) 1849 (e) None of these
(ii) Who suggested Shelley to “Curb your magnanimity and be more of a poet’?
(a) Wordsworth (b) Coleridge (c) Keats (d) Blake (e) None of these
(iii) The lines ‘The one remains, the many change and pass; Heaven’s light forever shines, earth’s shadow fly; are composed by:
(a) Shelley (b) Byron (c) Keats (d) Southey (e) None of these
(iv) ‘On Pathetic Fallacy’ was written by:
(a) Carlyle (b) Lamb (c) Ruskin (d) Shelley (e) None of these
(v) The 1805 text of ‘The Prelude’ is edited by:
(a) Helen Darbishire (b) Ernest De Selin Court (c) Herbert Reads (d) Coleridge (e) None of these
(vi) ‘The Lay of the Last Ministerul’ is written by:
(a) Blake (b) Byron (c) Tennyson (d) Walter Scott (e) None of these
(vii) __________ the quality when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason’ ___ is:
(a) Objectivity (b) Subjectivity (c) Negative capability (d) Scepticism (e) None of these
(viii) ‘The Quarterly Review’ was founded by:
(a) Walter Scott (b) Byron (c) Coleridge (d) Thomas De Quincey (e) None of these
(ix) ‘Mansfield Park’ is a novel by:
(a) Katherine Mansfield (b) Emily Bronte (c) George Eliot (d) Jane Austen (e) None of these
(x) ‘I am half sick of shadows’ is a line from:
(a) Shelley (b) Wordsworth (c) Coleridge (d) Tennyson (e) None of these
(xi) Adonais is an elegy on the death of:
(a) Moschus (b) Edward William (c) John Keats (d) Shakespeare (e) None of these
(xii) ‘Poetry is the criticism of life’ is a view about poetry by:
(a) Arnold (b) Dr. Johnson (c) Shelley (d) Hazlitt (e) None of these
(xiii) ‘The Pickwick Papers’ by Dickens was published in:
(a) 1837 (b) 1838 (c) 1839 (d) 1841 (e) None of these
(xiv) ‘On Heroes and Hero-worship is written by:
(a) Huxley (b) Carlyle (c) Ruskin (d) Mill (e) None of these
(xv) Dickens, Thackray, George Eliot and Trollope are:
(a) Novelists (b) Poets (c) Critics (d) Essayists (e) None of these
(xvi) ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’ was written by:
(a) J.S. Mill (b) Ruskin (c) Carlyle (d) Darwin (e) None of these
(xvii) Who gave the aesthetic theory of Art For Arts’ Sake:
(a) Wordsworth (b) Browning (c) Oscar Wilde (d) Galsworthy (e) None of these
(xviii) “Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted according to the determination of will”, is a statement by:
(a) Wordsworth (b) Shelley (c) Coleridge (d) Arnold (e) None of these
(xix) ‘A woman of no importance’ is a ______ by Oscar Wilde:
(a) Comedy (b) Tragedy (c) Dramatic Romance (d) Farce (e) None of these
(xx) George Eliot and T.S. Eliot are:
(a) Brother & Sister (b) Contemporary writers (c) Modern poets (d) Critics (e) None of these
PART – II
NOTE:
(i) PART-II is to be attempted on the separate Answer Book.
(ii) Attempt ONLY FOUR questions. Select TWO from each SECTION. All questions carry EQUAL marks.
(iii) Extra attempt of any question or any part of the attempted question will not be considered.
SECTION – I
Q.2. The 19th century Romantic Movement has been variously interpreted as ‘the convalescence of the feeling of beauty’, ‘renaissance of wonder’, ‘split religion’ and ‘erotic nostalgia’. Comment on the aspects giving your own assessment of the movement as it relates to the prescribed poets. (20)
Q.3. “To many readers Shelley’s genius is primarily lyrical: which commonly implies emotional. This is very doubtful – intense and unremitting intellectual activity seems to have been the main characteristic of his mind”. Justify or refute this remark by Graham Hough illustrating from the poems you have read. (20)
Q.4. ‘Wordsworth’s’ Philosophy of Nature is nothing more than a case of pathetic fallacy because he cannot shake off his egocentricity even when he tends to be philosophic’. Comment. (20)
Q.5. Keats has been called ‘a mystic through the medium of the senses’. Examine the statement in relation to his major odes. (20)
SECTION – II
Q.6. Hardy is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He is essentially a meliorist. Discuss in relation to Hardy’s novels that you have read. (20)
Q.7. Charles Lamb’s’ essays are called ‘Lyric Poems in Prose’. Give your own comments on this statement referring to Lamb’s’ Essays of Elia’. (20)
Q.8. Write a detailed critical note on Browning’s Dramatic Monologue with special reference to ‘The Last Ride Together’ and ‘My Last Duchess’. (20)