WB SSC ENGLISH COUNSEL: 50 MCQs with answers on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, covering form, language, imagery, and meaning:

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

50 MCQs with answers on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, covering form, language, imagery, and meaning:

**How many lines does the sonnet have?**
A) 12  B) 14  C) 10  D) 16
Answer: B
**What is the rhyme scheme?**
A) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG  B) ABBA…  C) Free verse  D) AABB…
Answer: A
**Which sonnet type is this?**
A) Petrarchan  B) Spenserian  C) Shakespearean  D) Italian
Answer: CWhat meter is used?
A) Iambic pentameter  B) Trochaic tetrameter  C) Iambic tetrameter  D) Anapestic
Answer: A
**Where does the volta (turn) occur?**
A) Line 9  B) Line 7  C) Line 5  D) Line 11
Answer: A
**How many quatrains before the couplet?**
A) 3  B) 2  C) 4  D) 1
Answer: A
**Lines 13–14 form what feature?**
A) Couplet  B) Quatrain  C) Octave  D) Free verse
Answer: A
**What rhetorical device opens line 1?**
A) Simile  B) Metaphor  C) Rhetorical question  D) Personification
Answer: C
**“Eye of heaven” refers to:**
A) Moon  B) Sun  C) Star  D) Sky
Answer: B
**Which device is in “rough winds do shake…”?**
A) Alliteration  B) Personification  C) Irony  D) Hyperbole
Answer: B

**“More temperate” means:**
A) Hotter  B) Milder  C) Colder  D) Variable
Answer: B
**“Lease” refers to:**
A) Contract  B) Time allotted  C) Heat  D) Beauty
Answer: B
**What do “rough winds” do?**
A) Cuddle buds  B) Shake the buds  C) Nourish flowers  D) Ignore May
Answer: B
**“Gold complexion dimm’d” means:**
A) Skin tanning  B) Clouds cover the sun
C) Moonlight shines  D) Stain on gold
Answer: B
**“Every fair from fair sometime declines” implies:**
A) Beauty always grows  B) Beauty fades
C) Spring is eternal  D) Fair is a festival
Answer: B
**“Nature’s changing course” suggests:**
A) Chaos  B) Life cycle
C) Sunrise  D) Art
Answer: B
**“Eternal summer shall not fade” means:**
A) Actual summer
B) Beloved’s beauty
C) Leaves
D) Youth refound
Answer: B
**To what does “eternal lines” refer?**
A) Painting  B) The poem itself
C) Time  D) Seasons
Answer: B
**“Nor shall Death brag…” is an example of:**
A) Metaphor  B) Personification
C) Simile  D) Alliteration
Answer: B
**What does “wander’st in his shade” mean?**
A) Living with Death
B) Lost in forest
C) Walking at night
D) Dreaming
Answer: A

The main theme is:
A) Nature’s fury
B) Transience vs immortality
C) Social satire
D) War
Answer: B (PNHS)
**The beloved is addressed as:**
A) Nature  B) Friend/young man
C) Fair maiden  D) Poet himself
Answer: B
**The poem assures permanence of:**
A) Seasons
B) The beloved’s beauty in verse
C) Rough winds
D) Time
Answer: B
**What does “So long as men can breathe…” imply?**
A) Time is short
B) Poem lasts forever
C) Seasons repeat
D) Breathing equals living
Answer: B
**What does the concluding couplet do?**
A) Summarize argument
B) Introduce new theme
C) Criticize poetry
D) Confess love
Answer: A
**The beloved surpasses summer in being:**
A) Hotter
B) More temperate and constant
C) Fleeting
D) Rough
Answer: B
**Summer’s major flaw is its:**
A) Frequent rain
B) Short duration
C) Lack of warmth
D) Permanent beauty
Answer: B
The poem views beauty as:
A) Temporary without art
B) Forever
C) Irrelevant
D) Fanciful
Answer: A
**Personification is used in:**
A) Line 1
B) Line 11 (“Death brag…”)
C) Line 14
D) Line 3
Answer: B
“Complexion” refers to:
A) Inner and outer quality
B) Skin only
C) Character flaws
D) Complexity
Answer: A

**“More lovely and more temperate” contrasts with:**
A) Rough winds and heat
B) Death
C) Clouds
D) Spring
Answer: A
**Summer’s “gold complexion dimm'd” by:**
A) Age
B) Clouds
C) Moonlight
D) Heat
Answer: B
**“Every fair from fair…” refers to decline caused by:**
A) Nature and chance
B) Human cruelty
C) Poetry
D) Time only
Answer: A
**“Eternal summer” is a:**
A) Literal season
B) Metaphor for lasting beauty
C) Time of life
D) Dream
Answer: B
**The poem’s thrust in quatrains is:**
A) Praise only
B) Critique of summer
C) Weather report
D) Historical record
Answer: B
The poem’s voice is:
A) Detached narrator
B) Affectionate speaker
C) Anger voice
D) Playful child
Answer: B
**“Nor lose possession…” means:**
A) Forget beauty
B) Never lose its beauty
C) Give back beauty
D) Flee death
Answer: B
**The poem’s tone is:**
A) Pessimistic
B) Romantic and celebratory
C) Angry
D) Ironical
Answer: B
**“Lines to time thou grow’st” indicates:**
A) Aging
B) Immortality through the poem
C) Time travel
D) Growth of poets
Answer: B
The poem contrasts:
A) Love vs hate
B) Nature vs art
C) Birth vs death
D) Summer vs winter
Answer: B

The speaker addresses:
A) A woman
B) The “Fair Youth”
C) Self
D) Nature
Answer: B
**Sonnet 18 follows the pattern:**
A) Petrarchan sonnet
B) Shakespearean sonnet
C) Ballad
D) Free verse
Answer: B
**The sonnet leaves procreation for:**
A) Lines 1–17
B) Poetry’s immortality
C) City life
D) Drinking
Answer: B **The poem’s irony is that:**
A) Summer outlives beauty
B) The poem lives on, not the beloved
C) Love is fleeting
D) Death is powerful
Answer: B
**The use of “shall” throughout signals:**
A) Uncertainty
B) Certainty/definiteness
C) Threat
D) Fear
Answer: B (implied)
“Untrimmed” metaphorically means:
A) Clothing falling apart
B) Losing adornments/natural decline
C) Ships sailing
D) Cooking
Answer: B
**The poem grants immortality through:**
A) Statues
B) Poetry
C) Ornaments
D) Stat archives
Answer: B
**“So long lives this…” refers to:**
A) Nature’s cycle
B) The poem
C) Summer
D) Age
Answer: B
This sonnet focuses on:
A) Seasonal description
B) Immortality through verse
C) Political satire
D) Family
Answer: B
**Overall, Sonnet 18 is an example of:**
A) Romantic elegy
B) Metapoetry on immortality
C) Pastoral epic
D) Political discourse
Answer: B

WB SSC ENGLISH COUNSEL