Authors Named Robert Trivia Quiz

Answer: Browning

Robert Browning wrote "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" as a poem in the 1800s.
It contains these lines:
"To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin, was a pity.

Rats!"

However, the story which is of German origin dates back to the Middle Ages. In fact, the story comes from the town of Hamelin where it takes place. The Pied Piper leads the rats out of the town with a magic flute, but then the mayor who had earlier promised to pay him now doesn't. The Pied Piper then changes the magic of the flute, and leads all the children out of town.

Answer: Burns

Scotsman Robert Burns wrote the poem "Auld Lang Syne" in 1788. This is also the lyrics to the song people in English-speaking countries often sing on New Year's Eve going into the New Year. However, his poem was adapted from the James Watson poem from 1711 and includes many of the same words, including the well-known chorus rewritten into Scottish dialect by Burns. Watson's version reads:

"Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne."

Answer: Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "Treasure Island" in 1883. It is an adventure story about a boy named Jim Hawkins who searches for a buried treasure. He faces pirates, castaways, ghosts, and other adventures. The well-known phrase "X marks the spot" is found in "Treasure Island."

Answer: Heinlein

Robert Heinlein wrote the sci-fi novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" in 1961. The story is about a human, Valentine Michael Smith, who is raised on Mars. A spacecraft had landed there, but they lost contact with Earth, and Smith is the only survivor.

Answer: Frost

Robert Frost wrote "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" in 1922 and published it the following year. The final stanza:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Initially, as above, the poem did not have the Oxford comma. However, some versions do have it as "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep." Frost and the editors fought over this because he did not want it there, but the publisher thought grammatically it had to be there. He felt it changed his intended meaning. He had intended the word dark and deep to be an explanation of what was lovely about the woods, not just two more adjectives describing them.

The Oxford comma is the last comma in a series that occurs before the conjunction. It always used to be required. Today it is not always required. However, sometimes it is used for clarity.

Answer: Heinlein

"Job: A Comedy of Justice" is a sci-fi novel by Robert Heinlein published in 1984. It won a Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1985. The story centers on Alex, a corrupted political Christian activist. Margrethe corrupted him on a Danish Norse cruise ship into thinking it's better to give up his Christian beliefs and have fun instead.

Answer: Burns

Robert Burns wrote the poem "To a Mouse" in 1785. When looking at his words, one can see his Scottish influence on the poetry:
"Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!"

According to Burns's brother, Gilbert, Robert Burns penned this poem "while holding his plough" after he had accidentally destroyed a mouse's nest while ploughing.

Answer: Frost

Robert Frost wrote the poem "The Road Not Taken" in 1915. Originally, the line "Oh, I kept the first for another day!" was written as "Oh, I marked the first for another day!" and the line written as "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-" was written as "Two roads diverged in a wood -and I-".

They were changed in 1916, and remained that way in all future publications of the poem.

The poem was originally written as a joke to Frost's friend, Edward Thomas after they were walking. Thomas had a hard time deciding which way he wanted to walk, so Roberts wrote one of his most beloved poems as an inside joke between friends.

Answer: Browning

Robert Brown wrote "My Last Duchess" in 1842. It is part of an anthology self-published by Browning of his own works.

The poem is made up entirely of couplets, like these lines:
"That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands."

The artist Fra Pandolf was created by the poet.

Answer: Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the novel "Kidnapped" in 1886. David Balfour is a sixteen-year-old orphan. He sets off to live with his miserly Uncle Ebenezer Balfour. He learns that his father may have been older than his uncle, which would make David the heir to the estate, not his uncle.

Uncle Ebenezer is unhappy about this, and through some events, David is eventually knocked senseless and awakens tied up on a ship. His uncle had planned to sell him as a slave. The book goes through his travels in the Scottish Highlands and his friendship with a man named Alan.