Like most non-science disciplines, the graduate programs of the best
English lit. departments are very oriented to cranking out PhD's,
not MA's. They tend not to even accept people working toward MA's;
they usually award 'em to PhD candidates who have crashed and
burned (read failed their qual's). This is mainly true of the top
American programs such as Yale's and Brown's. Some good public
universities have MA programs in which you are specifically *not*
allowed to continue on for a PhD. I think the University of
Washington is one. It is a kind of Catch-22: You're not sure if
you're inspired enough to grind all the way to a PhD., but only the
mediocre, uninspiring schools have real MA programs.