Pick the Poet Trivia Quiz

Answer: Robert Frost

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" is the opening line of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken", written in 1915. The poem is about having to make choices in life and that those choices have consequences.

Much of Frost's work dealt with rural life in New England. Frost's younger years were spent in obscurity because American publishers didn't appreciate his work. He sold his farm and went to England where he hoped his work would find a publisher. Indeed it did. Frost returned to New Hampshire. He was the most highly honored American poet of the 20th century, winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times.

Answer: Langston Hughes

"I, too, sing America" is the first line of "I too", a poem by Langston Hughes. Hughes was an important part of the Harlem Rennaissance movement of the 1920s. Hughes also wrote short stories, novels, and plays. He tried to portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives. In so doing he alienated many black intellectuals who thought his portrayals diminished their race.

One meaning behind the poem is that Hughes, even though his skin is a different color, and he is often ignored, loves his country and is proud of it.

Answer: Carl Sandburg

Hog Butcher for the World" is the first line of Carl Sandburg's poem "Chicago". Sandburg was praising the importance of the Chicago meatpacking industry, depicting Chicago as the most important city in the country through which all commerce flows. The poem was published in 1916.

Sandburg composed his poetry primarily in free verse. He was the one American writer who distinguished himself in five fields: poetry, history, biography, fiction, and music. Sandburg's account of the life of Abraham Lincoln ("Abraham Lincoln: The War Years" (1939)) is one of the monumental works of the century. Sandburg was the first private citizen to deliver an address before a joint session of Congress (on February 12, 1959, the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth).

Answer: William Ernest Henley

"Out of the night that covers me" is the opening line of "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley, written in 1875. At a young age, Henley was diagnosed with a condition that resulted in the amputation of one of his legs below the knee. The other leg was saved. It was while he was recovering from surgery that he wrote "Invictus". Invictus is Latin for unconquerable.

"Invictus" inspires courage and determination. Regardless of the obstacles encountered in life, you most never let them determine your destiny.

Answer: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" is the opening line of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet #43 found in "Sonnets from the Portuguese". The book of sonnets, many believe, was written to her poet husband, Robert Browning. She writes about the various ways she loves and suggests that the love carries on beyond the grave. The sonnet was written about 1844.

She also took aim at many forms of social injustice, including the slave trade in America, child labor laws and feminism.

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" is the opening line of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. First published in 1845, "The Raven" launched Poe's literary career and remains one of his best-known works. "The Raven" is a classic tale of loss and grief.

In his grief for his deceased lover Lenore, an apparition appears to him in the form of a raven. The raven utters only the word, "Nevermore".

Answer: Robert Burns

"O, my luve's like a red, red, rose" is the first line of Scottish poet Robert Burns' "Red, Red, Rose". This poem was written around 1790. The poem is very much about love and passion and that the love will endure forever.

Colin Will, a former librarian at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, wrote, "I'm satisfied in my own mind that Burns was writing about the vivid red buds of the dog rose, 'newly sprung in June'. So when I read the poem I don't see the big blowsy blossoms of today's suburban gardens; I see tightly-folded red velvet lips in an Ayrshire hedgerow." (Will, Colin, "Plants in Poems, 1995)
Burns is considered Scotland's national poet.

Answer: T.S. Eliot

"April is the cruellest month, breeding" is the first line of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", published in 1922. The 5-part poem describes the horrific aftereffects of WW1. Eliot contrasts the traditional view of spring, a time of rebirth and hope, with memories and suffering that had been dormant over winter, making it a painful season for many.

The devastation in Europe in the wake of WW1, and the world's political landscape complicate the rebirth that spring promises.

Answer: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" is one of several Whitman wrote mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln. They were published in a book entitled "Leaves of Grass".

Walt Whitman has often been called the "father of free verse" and "America's Poet".

Answer: Maya Angelou

"You may write me down in history" is the first line of a poem entitled "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou (1978). Angelou's poetry emphasizes ways in which individuals deal with hardship and oppression. She was not afraid to include subjects like sex and race in her poems.

Angelou gained a measure of fame when President Bill Clinton invited her to write and read an inaugural poem. Angelou was also an actress and was nominated for an Emmy award for her performance in Roots in 1977. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is the first of Angelou's six autobiographies. In 2010, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.