MCQs| William Blake: Life and Work
Subject: English Literature / Romantic Poetry
William Blake (1757–1827)
Early Life and Artistic Style
1. In which city was William Blake born and spent the majority of his life?
a) Manchester
b) London
c) Edinburgh
d) Dublin
Answer: b
2. Before becoming a famous poet, Blake was professionally trained as a/an:
a) Lawyer
b) Engraver
c) Physician
d) Merchant
Answer: b
3. What unique method did Blake use to publish his books, combining text and visual art?
a) Lithography
b) Relief etching
c) Screen printing
d) Oil painting
Answer: b
4. Blake claimed to have experienced what from a very young age?
a) Chronic illness
b) Spiritual visions
c) Political exile
d) Extreme poverty
Answer: b
5. Which artistic period is William Blake most closely associated with?
a) The Enlightenment
b) The Renaissance
c) Romanticism
d) Neoclassicism
Answer: c
Section 2: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
6. In which year was Songs of Innocence first published?
a) 1798
b) 1789
c) 1801
d) 1776
Answer: b
7. Which poem acts as the famous counterpart to "The Lamb"?
a) The Fly
b) The Tyger
c) The Sick Rose
d) London
Answer: b
8. In "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence, who arrives in a dream to set the sweepers free?
a) An Angel
b) The King
c) A Schoolmaster
d) Their Parents
Answer: a
9. The subtitle of the combined collection describes the poems as showing "the two contrary states of the..."
a) Human Body
b) Modern World
c) Human Soul
d) Mortal Life
Answer: c
10. Which poem features the line, "Mind-forg'd manacles I hear"?
a) The Chimney Sweeper
b) Holy Thursday
c) London
d) Infant Sorrow
Answer: c
11. What animal does Blake use to represent purity and divine creation in Songs of Innocence?
a) The Lion
b) The Lamb
c) The Dove
d) The Robin
Answer: b
12. In "The Tyger," the speaker asks if the creator of the tiger also made whom?
a) The Forest
b) The Stars
c) The Lamb
d) The Night
Answer: c
13. What color is the "Rose" in Blake's famous poem about decay and secret love?
a) White
b) Pink
c) Crimson
d) Yellow
Answer: c
14. "The Garden of Love" depicts a chapel built in a place where the speaker used to:
a) Sleep
b) Play on the green
c) Pray
d) Sing
Answer: b
15. In Songs of Experience, "Holy Thursday" critiques the treatment of:
a) Soldiers
b) Poor children
c) Prisoners
d) Widows
Answer: b
Section 3: Prophetic Books and Mythology
16. What name did Blake give to the creator-god/demiurge in his private mythology?
a) Los
b) Enitharmon
c) Urizen
d) Orc
Answer: c
17. Which of Blake's characters represents the "Eternal Prophet" and the spirit of imagination?
a) Rintrah
b) Los
c) Theotormon
d) Palamabron
Answer: b
18. Blake’s poem "And did those feet in ancient time" is now commonly known as the hymn:
a) Amazing Grace
b) Jerusalem
c) Abide with Me
d) Lead Kindly Light
Answer: b
19. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake famously writes, "The road of excess leads to the..."
a) Palace of wisdom
b) Gates of despair
c) River of life
d) Mountain of truth
Answer: a
20. What historical event heavily influenced Blake's "The French Revolution" and "America: A Prophecy"?
a) The Industrial Revolution
b) The Napoleonic Wars
c) The fall of the Bastille
d) The Great Fire of London
Answer: c
21. Blake’s "Proverbs of Hell" are found in which work?
a) Milton
b) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
c) Jerusalem
d) The Book of Thel
Answer: b
22. Which figure in Blake's mythology represents revolution and rebellious energy?
a) Orc
b) Bromion
c) Beulah
d) Tharmas
Answer: a
23. Blake viewed the "reasoning power" of man, when separated from imagination, as:
a) A gift from God
b) The highest human achievement
c) A specter or demon
d) The only path to truth
Answer: c
24. Which of Blake's epic poems focuses on a fellow poet returning from eternity to purge his own errors?
a) Chaucer
b) Milton
c) Shakespeare
d) Dante
Answer: b
25. The "Four Zoas" represent the four aspects of:
a) The Seasons
b) The Elements
c) The Universal Man (Albion)
d) The British Monarchy
Answer: c
Section 4: Themes and Philosophy
26. Blake famously stated: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, ______."
a) Finite
b) Infinite
c) Beautiful
d) Terrible
Answer: b
27. What did Blake mean by the term "Dark Satanic Mills"?
a) Ancient volcanoes
b) The industrial factories
c) Deep underground mines
d) Corrupt churches
Answer: b
28. Which of these was a primary target of Blake's social criticism?
a) Child labor
b) Institutionalized religion
c) Poverty
d) All of the above
Answer: d
29. Blake believed that "Without ________ there is no progression."
a) Love
b) Contraries
c) Peace
d) Money
Answer: b
30. To Blake, the "True Man" was defined by his:
a) Logic
b) Imagination
c) Wealth
d) Obedience
Answer: b
Section 5: Specific Poem Details
31. In "The Poison Tree," what grows as a result of the speaker’s suppressed anger?
a) A vine
b) An apple
c) A thorn
d) A lily
Answer: b
32. What happens to the "foe" at the end of "The Poison Tree"?
a) He apologizes
b) He steals the speaker’s house
c) He is found dead beneath the tree
d) He runs away in fear
Answer: c
33. In "The Clod and the Pebble," which object views love as selfless and giving?
a) The Pebble
b) The River
c) The Clod of Clay
d) The Grass
Answer: c
34. In "The Little Black Boy," where does the boy's mother say the sun comes from?
a) The East
b) God
c) The Sea
d) The Heart
Answer: b
35. The poem "The Echoing Green" is found in which collection?
a) Songs of Experience
b) Poetical Sketches
c) Songs of Innocence
d) The Everlasting Gospel
Answer: c
36. In "Infant Joy," how old is the baby?
a) Two days old
b) One week old
c) A month old
d) One year old
Answer: a
37. What destroys the rose in "The Sick Rose"?
a) A sharp frost
b) An invisible worm
c) A heavy rain
d) A gardener’s shears
Answer: b
38. "The Chimney Sweeper" of Experience blames his misery on "God & his Priest & ____."
a) The Devil
b) King
c) Police
d) Master
Answer: b
39. In "A Divine Image" (Experience), what is described as a "hungry gorge"?
a) The Human Heart
b) The Human Mouth
c) The Human Stomach
d) The Human Soul
Answer: a
40. Which poem begins with the line: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand"?
a) The Book of Ahania
b) Auguries of Innocence
c) The Mental Traveller
d) Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Answer: b
Section 6: Legacy and Miscellaneous
41. Blake’s wife, who assisted him in his printing process, was named:
a) Mary Shelley
b) Catherine Boucher
c) Dorothy Wordsworth
d) Elizabeth Siddal
Answer: b
42. How was Blake's work received during his actual lifetime?
a) He was a wealthy celebrity
b) He was largely ignored or considered mad
c) He was Poet Laureate
d) He was banned from writing
Answer: b
43. Blake illustrated which famous Italian work toward the end of his life?
a) The Prince
b) The Decameron
c) The Divine Comedy
d) The Courtier
Answer: c
44. Which contemporary of Blake was he briefly associated with in radical political circles?
a) Mary Wollstonecraft
b) Lord Byron
c) John Keats
d) Jane Austen
Answer: a
45. Blake’s "Jerusalem" is the preface to which of his longer works?
a) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
b) Milton
c) Vala
d) The Four Zoas
Answer: b
46. What was the name of the group of young artists who admired Blake in his later years?
a) The Pre-Raphaelites
b) The Ancients
c) The Lake Poets
d) The Bloomsbury Group
Answer: b
47. In Blake's view, "The Schoolboy" finds the classroom to be:
a) A place of wonder
b) A cruel cage
c) A path to success
d) A home away from home
Answer: b
48. What is the rhyme scheme of most of the stanzas in "The Tyger"?
a) ABAB
b) AABB
c) ABBA
d) ABCB
Answer: b
49. Blake’s first printed collection of poetry (1783) was titled:
a) Songs of Innocence
b) Poetical Sketches
c) The French Revolution
d) The Book of Thel
Answer: b
50. Where is William Blake buried?
a) Westminster Abbey
b) Bunhill Fields
c) St. Paul's Cathedral
d) Highgate Cemetery
Answer: b