It's Always the Sheep! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Flock

The poem gives images of the sheep "squeezed into the holding pen", "squirming around to find a little room", and "looking so much alike it would be nearly impossible to count them." Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001-2003, was born in New York City in 1941.

Some of his poetry books include: "She Was Just Seventeen", "Video Poems", "Pokerface", "Nine Horses", and "The Trouble with Poetry".

Answer: Broken Vessels

"Broken Vessels" is a compilation of 22 essays written between 1977 and 1990 which had previously appeared in various magazines. "Out Like a Lamb" first appeared in "Boston Magazine". Several of the essays reflect pain that Dubus experienced after a car accident that resulted in the amputation of his left leg.

Answer: William Blake

In the first part of the poem "The Lamb", Blake asks the question, "Little lamb, who made thee? / Dost thou know who made thee?" The second part of the poem answers the question for the lamb with "He is called by thy name, / For He calls Himself a Lamb." The poem ends with "Little Lamb, God bless thee!"

William Blake was born in London in 1757. In addition to being a poet, he also painted and worked as a printmaker. Some of his major works include: "Songs of Experience", "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", "The Four Zoas", and "Jerusalem".

Answer: Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story

The story is set in Glennkill, a fictitious Irish village. The sheep belong to a shepherd named George Glenn, who is murdered with a spade. The book was originally published in 2005, and the English translation by Anthea Bell was published in 2006.

Leonie Swann is the nom de plume for the author who was born in Germany in 1975. She separates her public and private life, and does not reveal her real name to journalists.

Answer: Animal Farm

Eric Arthur Blair was born in British India in 1903. He is better known by his pen name, George Orwell. Orwell wrote "Animal Farm" as an allegory to criticize Stalin.

The sheep in the novel are easily manipulated by Napoleon. They are taught chants to repeat during public meetings and speeches, the most frequent being "Four legs good, two legs bad". Once the pigs begin to walk on two feet, they coach the sheep into chanting, "Four legs good, two legs better". The sheep from the novel can be taken to represent Stalin's propaganda, or even the gullibleness of the people manipulated by that propaganda.

Answer: Far from the Madding Crowd

The novel follows the lives of Gabriel Oak, a shepherd, and Bathsheba Everdene. Gabriel and Bathsheba originally meet when she arrives in the country to visit family. The two develop a friendship but she refuses his marriage proposal. After losing everything, Gabriel is later forced to ask her for employment. She later fires him but begs for his help after she has a problem with her sheep. Bathsheba's life becomes complicated with a couple of suitors and marriage, but after the death of her husband, she and Gabriel are eventually married.

Thomas Hardy was born in England in 1840. Hardy belonged to the Naturalism movement, and he wrote novels, short stories, and poems. Some of his major works include: "Under the Greenwood Tree", "The Return of the Native", "The Well Beloved", and "Tess of the d'Urbervilles".

Answer: Silence of the Lambs

"Silence of the Lambs" is the second book in the Hannibal Lecter series written by Thomas Harris and the first one to introduce Clarice Starling. The first book, "Red Dragon", was published in 1981 and was adapted into the 1986 movie "Manhunter".

In "Silence of the Lambs", Clarice is an FBI trainee sent to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who is serving back-to-back life sentences for his crimes. During the interviews, Hannibal gives Clarice clues about the serial killer called "Buffalo Bill" but he has Clarice tell him her childhood memories in return. Her worst memory is that of seeing a farmer slaughter lambs, after which she was sent to live in an orphanage. In a congratulatory postcard from Hannibal to Clarice after she becomes a full FBI agent and he has escaped the mental institution, Hannibal refers to the memory in saying that he hopes "the lambs have stopped screaming".

Answer: Black Sheep

The poem describes the sheep wandering off to "follow the beck of a baleful star" and suggests that they may be "sick at heart for their homely ways / Where their gathered brothers be".

Richard Burton lived from 1821 to 1890 and explored Africa, Asia, and the Americas. He learned to speak dozens of languages and he served as a captain in the East India Company's army. "Wanderings in West Africa" and "Stone Talk" are a couple of his literary works. He also translated "The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night" which is also known as "The Arabian Nights".

Answer: Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary's real name was Mary Sawyer and she really did have a pet sheep. The sheep started to follow her to school one day and her brother suggested she take it inside. When it came time for her to recite, the lamb followed her to the front of the room. The incident was witnessed by a young man visiting the school.

His name was John Roulstone and he is said to have handed Mary a paper the next day with the first twelve lines of the poem. The nursery rhyme was first published in 1830 as a poem by Sarah Josepha Hale in "Poems for Our Children".

Their is some controversy as to whether or not Sarah Josepha Hale wrote the entire poem, though many credit Roulstone with the first three stanzas.

Answer: The Sheep Who Changed the World

"The Sheep Who Changed the World" is a picaresque comedy. In it, a ram is given a human intelligence gene by a mad scientist. The ram then secretly educates himself, learns the ways of humans, and plans to escape the laboratory. Once he's out, he takes on the world and plots the demise of the Batty fundamentalists of the Men's Republic of Battyministan because they killed his donor parent.

Neil Astley is a British writer who also works as an editor and publisher. He has several poetry collections, which are "The Speechless Act", "Darwin Survivor", and "Biting My Tongue".