Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Let's start with some advice by a Shakespearean character.
Don Pedro requests that his attendant Balthasar sing a song at a masquerade ball. Balthasar obliges with this little ditty:
"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny nonny."
In which Shakespeare play would you find these words of wisdom?
2. A sigh might be seen as a calibration on a scale of grief at a funeral according to this American writer:
"Where a blood relation sobs, an intimate friend should choke up, a distant acquaintance should sigh, a stranger should merely fumble sympathetically with his handkerchief."
Which writer probably best known for his books about life on the Mississippi River gave us this advice?
3. This is the final verse of a wonderful short poem by an American poet:
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
No further clues on this one; name the poet.
4. The Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice was built in the seventeenth century but it was a nineteenth century English Romantic poet who actually gave the bridge its name:
"I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs,
A palace and a prison on each hand."
Which poet penned these lines?
5. "Religion is the opiate of the people" is an oft quoted remark. It is actually a contraction (and slight misquotation) of the full quote which is:
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
Who originally wrote these words?
6. This poet uses a sigh as part of a personification of fear:
"Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry,
Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer,
Through the Jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh--
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!"
If I emphasise that this is set in the jungle can you give me the name of the poet?
7. An Irish poet regrets the inevitability that children must leave us:
"I sigh that kiss you,
For I must own
That I shall miss you
When you have grown."
Maybe he arose and went to Innisfree for consolation?
Who was this wistful poet?
8. A disillusioned view of eighteenth century London with blame firmly directed at the authorities can be found in this poem:
"How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls."
Certainly not "Jerusalem" then...but who is this angry poet?
9. This was one of my favourite poems as a child and features a rather portly Teddy Bear and his concerns about his size; here is one stanza:
"For many weeks he pressed in vain
His nose against the window-pane,
And envied those who walked about
Reducing their unwanted stout.
None of the people he could see
"Is quite" (he said) "as fat as me!"
Then, with a still more moving sigh,
"I mean" (he said) "as fat as I!""
Which author and poet famous for creating a very well-loved bear of very little brain wrote this amusing ode?
10. I'll finish as I started with Shakespeare and a youth disillusioned with love:
"...Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes.
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears.
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet."
His opinions are to change very soon; who speaks these lines?
Source: Author
mutchisman
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
trident before going online.
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