AP English Literature and Composition › Contexts of World Poetry to 1660
Canto I
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
What country is this author from?
Italy
Greece
Turkey
Morocco
Spain
Dante was from Florence, Italy.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)
Canto I
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
One of the major characters in this work is the author of which epic poem?
The Aeneid
The Iliad
Paradise Lost
The Lusiads
Metamorphoses
Virgil, the Roman author of The Aeneid (19 BCE), serves as the narrator’s guide through Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory in Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Homer's The Illiad, John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674), Luis Vaz de Camoens's The Lusiads (1572), and Ovid's Metamorphoses were all used as alternative answer choices.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)
Of arms I sing, and of the man, whom Fate
First drove from Troy to the Lavinian shore.
Full many an evil, through the mindful hate
Of cruel Juno, from the gods he bore,
Much tost on earth and ocean, yea, and more
In war enduring, ere he built a home,
And his loved household-deities brought o’er
To Latium, whence the Latin people come,
Whence rose the Alban sires, and walls of lofty Rome.
Which of the following is not a major character in this work?
Menelaus
Juno
Dido
Anchises
Creusa
Although Aeneis is from Troy and Menelaus is the husband of Helen of Troy, Menelaus is in fact a major character in Homer’s The Iliad and not Virgil’s The Aeneid.
Passage adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. E. Fairfax Taylor (1907)
Canto I
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
During what century was this work written?
1300s
1200s
1400s
1100s
1500s
Although Dante was born in the 1200s (exact date unknown), The Divine Comedy was begun around 1308 and completed in 1320. Dante died in 1321.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)
Canto I
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
Who is this author?
Dante
Chaucer
Shakespeare
Boccaccio
Petrarch
This is an excerpt from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy – specifically, the famous opening lines of The Inferno. Even if you didn’t recognize these lines, you could have noticed that the work is written in couplets and that it is a canto, both of which are identifying features of The Divine Comedy.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)
Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon’s shore,
Thro’ seas where sail was never spread before,
Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast,
And waves her woods above the wat’ry waste,
With prowess more than human forc’d their way
To the fair kingdoms of the rising day:
What wars they wag’d, what seas, what dangers pass’d,
What glorious empire crown’d their toils at last,
Vent’rous I sing…
In what century was this work written?
1500s
1600s
1700s
1400s
1300s
The work was published in 1572, and Luís Vaz de Camões lived from around 1524 to 1580.
Passage adapted from Luís Vaz de Camões Os Lusíadas, trans. William Julius Mickle (1877)
Of arms I sing, and of the man, whom Fate
First drove from Troy to the Lavinian shore.
Full many an evil, through the mindful hate
Of cruel Juno, from the gods he bore,
Much tost on earth and ocean, yea, and more
In war enduring, ere he built a home,
And his loved household-deities brought o’er
To Latium, whence the Latin people come,
Whence rose the Alban sires, and walls of lofty Rome.
Which of the following works was not influenced by this one?
The Decameron
The Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
The Rape of the Lock
Beowulf
Boccaccio's The Decameron (1351), a 14th-century collection of Italian stories, does not demonstrate any direct influence by Virgil’s work; instead, The Decameron is often cited as the inspiration for other European prose (most notably, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1475)).
John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674), Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1712), and Beowulf (975-1025?) were also used as alternative answers.
Passage adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. E. Fairfax Taylor (1907)
Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon’s shore,
Thro’ seas where sail was never spread before,
Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast,
And waves her woods above the wat’ry waste,
With prowess more than human forc’d their way
To the fair kingdoms of the rising day:
What wars they wag’d, what seas, what dangers pass’d,
What glorious empire crown’d their toils at last,
Vent’rous I sing…
What country is this work from?
Portugal
Spain
Greece
Italy
Romania
Luís Vaz de Camões is Portuguese and one of his country’s most famous poets, and The Lusiads is often referred to as Portugal’s national epic.
Passage adapted from Luís Vaz de Camões Os Lusíadas, trans. William Julius Mickle (1877)
Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon’s shore,
Thro’ seas where sail was never spread before,
Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast,
And waves her woods above the wat’ry waste,
With prowess more than human forc’d their way
To the fair kingdoms of the rising day:
What wars they wag’d, what seas, what dangers pass’d,
What glorious empire crown’d their toils at last,
Vent’rous I sing…
Who is the author of this work?
Luís Vaz de Camões
Miguel de Cervantes
Francisco de Quevedo
António Ferreira
Fernando Pessoa
These are the opening lines of Luís Vaz de Camões’s The Lusiads, an epic poem written in response to and as a creative reimagining of the widespread 15th- and 16th-century European maritime explorations – particularly to India.
Passage adapted from Luís Vaz de Camões Os Lusíadas, trans. William Julius Mickle (1877)
Of arms I sing, and of the man, whom Fate
First drove from Troy to the Lavinian shore.
Full many an evil, through the mindful hate
Of cruel Juno, from the gods he bore,
Much tost on earth and ocean, yea, and more
In war enduring, ere he built a home,
And his loved household-deities brought o’er
To Latium, whence the Latin people come,
Whence rose the Alban sires, and walls of lofty Rome.
When was this poem written?
the 20s BCE
the 200s BCE
the 20s CE
the 200s CE
the 2000s BCE
The Aeneid was written sometime between 19 and 29 BCE.
Passage adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. E. Fairfax Taylor (1907)