50 MCQs with answers from John Donne’s The Good-Morrow
✅ 1–10: Themes & Meaning
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What is the central theme of The Good-Morrow?
A) Passage of time
B) True, spiritual love
C) Pain of separation
D) Beauty of nature
Answer: B -
How does the speaker describe life before meeting his beloved?
A) Adventurous
B) Childish and insignificant
C) Blissful
D) Tragic
Answer: B -
“If ever any beauty I did see…’twas but a dream of thee” implies:
A) Past relationships were illusions
B) He always saw beauty
C) He believed in destiny
D) Speech is poetic
Answer: A -
Significance of “good-morrow” in the poem:
A) Awakening of love
B) Farewell to past
C) Life’s transience
D) Childhood memories
Answer: A -
How does the speaker describe their present love?
A) Eternal and unchanging
B) Superficial
C) Passionate but fleeting
D) New and immature
Answer: A -
“Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone” suggests:
A) Love explores new worlds
B) Exploration is insignificant next to love
C) They should travel
D) Exploration is escapism
Answer: B -
Which literary device is prominent throughout the poem?
A) Simile
B) Hyperbole
C) Metaphysical conceit
D) Personification
Answer: C -
“My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears” emphasizes:
A) Physical attraction
B) Mutual reflection and unity
C) Fleeting beauty
D) Separation
Answer: B -
“Makes one little room an everywhere” suggests:
A) Love transcends boundaries
B) They feel confined
C) Love needs distance
D) Indifference to surroundings
Answer: A -
The speaker believes their love is:
A) Fragile
B) Eternal and immune to decay
C) Physical and temporary
D) Dependent on possessions
Answer: B
✅ 11–20: Language & Imagery
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“Whatever dies, was not mix’d equally” means:
A) Imbalanced love dies
B) All things die
C) Inequality helps love
D) Focus on power
Answer: A -
How does Donne depict the lovers’ bond?
A) Physical
B) Spiritual and eternal
C) One-sided
D) Challenging
Answer: B -
What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?
A) ABBAB CDDCC EEE
B) ABAB CDCD EFEF
C) AAAA BBBB CCCC
D) Free verse
Answer: A -
What does the speaker reject in the first stanza?
A) Spiritual love
B) Worldly pleasures and immaturity
C) Love exploration
D) Transience
Answer: B -
The central metaphysical theme is:
A) Transience
B) Unity of love and eternity
C) Physical beauty
D) Inevitability of separation
Answer: B -
“Seven sleepers’ den” alludes to:
A) Spiritual awakening
B) Ignorance before true love
C) Eternal rest
D) Physical attraction
Answer: B -
Primary tone of the poem:
A) Melancholic
B) Joyful and celebratory
C) Detached
D) Confrontational
Answer: B -
Which quality is typical of metaphysical poetry in this poem?
A) Emotional extravagance
B) Intellectual metaphors
C) Focus on nature
D) Lack of abstract concepts
Answer: B -
How are past pleasures viewed by the speaker?
A) Meaningful
B) Dreams and trivial
C) Foundation for love
D) Enlightening
Answer: B -
“If our two loves be one…” means:
A) Unity and equality
B) Dominance in love
C) Individual desires
D) Need for reassurance
Answer: A
✅ 21–30: Structure & Form
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The poem is structured in:
A) Sonnet form
B) Three 7-line stanzas
C) Ballad
D) Ode
Answer: B -
Which poetic form does the rhyme scheme resemble?
A) Rhyme royal
B) Shakespearean sonnet
C) Petrarchan sonnet
D) Free verse
Answer: A -
What allusion appears in stanza 1?
A) Greek gods
B) Seven Sleepers
C) Christ
D) Shakespeare
Answer: B -
“Let sea-discoverers…” contains:
A) Personification
B) Cosmological imagery
C) Simile
D) Irony
Answer: B -
The opening line refers to:
A) Spring
B) Seven Sleepers
C) Childhood
D) Sea explorers
Answer: B -
The form of the poem is:
A) Shakespearean sonnet
B) Unconventional Petrarchan
C) Ode
D) Free verse
Answer: B -
Meter used predominantly:
A) Iambic pentameter
B) Anapestic
C) Free verse
D) Trochaic tetrameter
Answer: A -
The poem’s length is:
A) 14 lines
B) 21 lines
C) 12 lines
D) 24 lines
Answer: B -
“Hemispheres” in stanza 3 represents:
A) Separate worlds
B) Lovers themselves
C) Religious realms
D) Geographic zones
Answer: B -
The poem’s stanzas are composed of:
A) Seven lines each
B) Four quatrains
C) Six-line sestets
D) Octaves
Answer: A
✅ 31–50: Deeper Analysis & Close Reading
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The poem belongs to which school of poetry?
A) Romantic
B) Metaphysical
C) Modernist
D) Elizabethan
Answer: B -
“Hemispheres” suggests:
A) Geographical maps
B) Unity of the lovers
C) Divided worlds
D) Political boundaries
Answer: B -
“Makes one little room an everywhere” expresses:
A) Love’s confinement
B) Love’s universality
C) Geographical imagery
D) Temporal limits
Answer: B -
The cosmographical conceit involves:
A) Maps and new worlds
B) Farming metaphors
C) Stars and astronomy
D) Legal terms
Answer: A -
The lovers’ unity in the poem is:
A) Physical
B) Emotional
C) Spiritual and eternal
D) Conditional
Answer: C -
Which quality of metaphysical poetry is evident?
A) Intellectual wit and conceits
B) Simplicity and clarity
C) Focus on pastoral scenes
D) Absence of imagery
Answer: A -
“Suck’d on country pleasures, childishly” means:
A) Immature pleasures of past life
B) Rural upbringing
C) Physical nourishment
D) Spiritual awakening
Answer: A -
What does “good-morrow” mean?
A) Morning
B) Awakening of souls
C) Beginning of winter
D) Sunset
Answer: B -
The poem ends with the belief that:
A) Love fades over time
B) Equal love is eternal
C) Lovers are separate entities
D) Dreams surpass reality
Answer: B -
What does “none can die” suggest?
A) Love is immortal
B) Lovers fear death
C) Love dies with imbalance
D) Time destroys love
Answer: A -
What device is used in “waking souls”?
A) Alliteration
B) Apostrophe
C) Metonymy
D) Hyperbole
Answer: B -
Which tone dominates the second stanza?
A) Celebratory
B) Reflective
C) Regretful
D) Satirical
Answer: B -
How does Donne’s use of conceit enhance the poem?
A) It creates vivid imagery
B) It confuses the reader
C) It limits emotional depth
D) It distracts from love
Answer: A -
The “room” in stanza 2 symbolizes:
A) Prison
B) The lovers’ private world
C) Heaven
D) Childhood home
Answer: B -
Love in the poem is portrayed as:
A) Equal and balanced
B) One-sided
C) Fleeting
D) Political union
Answer: A -
Why are past experiences “dreams”?
A) They were unimportant
B) They were unreal
C) They were better
D) They prepared him for love
Answer: B -
The speaker values:
A) Physical beauty over emotional connection
B) Equality and mutuality in love
C) Spiritual detachment
D) Individual freedom
Answer: B -
The poem’s worldview emphasizes:
A) Physical travel
B) Inner emotional universe
C) Political conquest
D) Religious penance
Answer: B -
The “seven sleepers’ den” reference shows:
A) Awakening from ignorance
B) Eternal rest
C) Religious piety
D) Childhood games
Answer: A -
The final belief in the poem is:
A) Spiritual love transcends time and death
B) Love depends on external factors
C) Separation is inevitable
D) Love fades without effort
Answer: A