Poets and Poems 1 - Answers

Published: Sunday 18th September 2011
  1. Who in 1668 became the first official Poet Laureate? John Dryden.
  2. By what name were the group of poets including among others Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Gregory Corso known? The Beat Movement [or Poets].
  3. How many lines are there in a sonnet? 14
  4. Which 19th Century poet and author popularised the limerick format? Edward Lear.
  5. Which poem has the opening line "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day"? Elegy in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Grey.
  6. What was Wordsworth describing when he wrote "Earth hath not anything to show more fair"? London [from "Composed on Westminster Bridge September 3rd 1802"].
  7. Which poem contains the line "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men"? "To a Mouse" - Robert Burns.
  8. What is the name of the traditional Japanese poetic form containing 17 syllables? Haiku.
  9. Which poem has the opening line "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward"? "The Charge of the Light Brigade" - Alfred Lord Tennyson.
  10. Who was the first female Poet Laureate? Carol Ann Duffy [2009].
  11. Which poem contains the line "Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats"? "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" - Robert Browning.
  12. What term did Samuel Johnson coin when referring to the group of poets containing John Donne and Thomas Traherne? The Metaphysical Poets.
  13. Which poem opens with "By the shores of the Gitche Gumee"? "Hiawatha's Childhood" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
  14. Which WW1 poet wrote "Anthem for Doomed Youth"? Wilfred Owen.
  15. Which Nobel Prize winning poet was born in County Derry in 1939? Seamus Heaney.
  16. Which poem has the opening line "Twas brilling and the slithy toves"? "Jabberwocky" - Lewis Carroll.
  17. Which poet was described by Lady Caroline Lamb as being "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know"? Lord Byron.
  18. Which TWO poets were mentioned in the 1966 song by Paul Simon "The Dangling Conversation"? Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost.
  19. According to T.S. Eliot which month is the cruellest? April.
  20. Who wrote "Do not go gentle into that good night"? Dylan Thomas.

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