CSET Practice Test On Poetry and Why Some People Pass and Some Do Not

Dante

Italian poet during the Middle Ages, that was one of the
first writers to show that a vernacular language can rise
to the lofty heights of epic, philosophy, and theology.
His greatest work is la Divina Commedia (The Divine
Comedy).

Walt Whitman

Lived between 1819 and 1892. Considered one of America's
best poets. He is said to have invented contemporary
American literature as a genre. He abandoned the rhythmic
and metrical structures of European poetry for an
expansionist freestyle verse, which delivered his view
that America was destined to reinvent the world as
emancipator and liberator of the human spirit. His most
famous work is Leaves of Grass.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lived between 1807 and 1882. An American poet and one of
the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets.
Famous poems include: The Song of Hiawatha, Paul
Revere's Ride, and Evangeline.

Carl Sandburg

Lived between 1878 and 1967. He was a great voice of the
American industrial age, a "people's poet" who combined
patriotism with social activism. His most famous poem is
Chicago.

Dylan Thomas

Lived between 1914 and 1953. Welsh poet who is widely
considered one of the greatest twentieth-century poets
writing in English. His most famous poem is Do not go
gentle into that good night.

Robert Hayden

Was the first African-American Consultant in Poetry to the
Library of Congress. Was attacked by other African-
American writers for his moderate views and for not using
his poetry to further the cause of the Black Arts
Movement. He believed in the oneness of humanity and
refused to support those who urged separation of the
races. He argued that to label any Negro writer a
"spokesman for his race" places him in a kind of literary
ghetto where the standards applied to other writers are
not likely to be applied to him. He asserted that there is
only good poetry and bad poetry and that it should not be
judged by any political or racial criteria. He insisted
that he was not a negro poet, but rather a poet who was
negro. His most famous poem is Those Winter
Sundays.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Lived between 1917 and 2000. She was an African-American
poet. She was the first African-American to receive a
Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her book of poetry called
Annie Allen. Her poetry is rooted in the poor and
mostly African-American South Side of Chicago. She was a
leader of the Black Arts movement. Her most famous poem is
We Real Cool.

A.E. Housman

Lived between 1859 and 1936. He was an English poet and
classical scholar. His poems deal with deep pessimism and
an obsession with death, with no place for the
consolations of religion. In 1933 he gave a lecture
entitled The Name and Nature of Poetry, in which he
argued that poetry should appeal to emotions rather than
intellect. He is best known for his cycle of poems A
Shropshire Lad. He wrote one of the most famous poems
ever written entitled To an Athelete Dying Young.

Edward Lear

Lived between 1812 and 1888. He was an artist,
illustrator, and writer known for his nonsensical poetry
and his limericks. His famous poems include: The Owl
and the Pussy-Cat, The Broom - the Shovel - the Poker and
the Tongs, and The Duck and the Kangaroo.

Charles Pierre Baudelaire

Lived between 1821 and 1867. He was one of the most
influential French poets of the nineteenth century. He was
a Symbolist poet who was fascinated by the darker side of
nature during the Romantic era. Like Poe, he examined
nature's less beautiful aspects such as death, decay, and
carrion. He was named cursed poet and imprisoned at one
point for contributing to societies immorality. He is best
known for his book of poetry entitled Les Fleurs du Mal
(The Flowers of Evil).

James Langston Hughes

Lived between 1902 and 1967. He was an African-American
poet. He is called the poet laureate of the African-
American experience. He was a popular writer of the Harlem
Renaissance. His famous essay entitled The Negro Artist
and the Racial Mountain, spoke of Black writers and
poets who would surrender racial pride in the name of
false integration, and how he would prefer to be
considered a poet, not a Black poet. The Black Movement
criticized him as wanting to write like a white poet. He
countered that argument with, "no great poet has ever been
afraid of being himself." He liked sitting in clubs
listening to blues, jazz, and writing poetry. His most
famous poems include:The Negro Speaks of Rivers,
Dreams, and Let America Be America Again.

Margaret Atwood

She is a Canadian poet, feminist, and political activist.
Issues of gender appear frequently in her work. Her work
has focused on Canadian national identity, Canada's
relations with the United States and Europe, environmental
issues, and the Canadian wilderness. Her most famous poem
is You Begin.

T.S. Eliot

Lived between 1888 and 1965. He was an American poet,
dramatist, and literary critic, whose famous works
include: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste
Land, The Hollow Men, and Four Quartets. His
works are considered defining achievements of twentieth
century Modernist poetry. In 1948, he won the Noble Prize
for Literature. He was one of the most influential poets
of the 20th century.

Emily Dickinson

Lived between 1830 and 1886. She was known as the "Belle
of Amherst". She is regarded as one of the quintessential
American poets of the 19th century. Her poetry reveals a
child-like fascination with the natural world. She writes
of butterflies, birds, and bats and uses metaphors to
describe the sea and sky. Her wonderful balance between
imagination and observation is what makes her verse so
perfect for children. Her famous poems include: A bird
came down the walk, I started early, took my dog, I'm
nobody! Who are you?, Hope is the thing with feathers, It
was not death-for I stood up, Death sets a thing
significant, I cannot like with you, Fame is a fickle
food, and Because I could not stop for death.

Robert Frost

Lived between 1874 and 1963. He was an American poet and
one of the greatest of the 20th century. He received four
Pulitzer Prizes during his life time. His best-known poems
are: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Mending
Wall, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Birches, After Apple Picking,
The Pasture, Fire and Ice, The Road Not Taken, and
Directive.

Emma Lazarus

Lived between 1849 and 1887. She was an American poet born
in New York City. She is best known for writing The New
Colossus, a sonnet written in 1883, that is now
engraved on a bronze plaque on a wall in the base of the
Statue of Liberty.