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Quiz about The Poetry of War
Quiz about The Poetry of War

The Poetry of War Trivia Quiz


The horrors of war have served as the inspiration for many a poem. This quiz covers ten of those poems, from the 17th through the 20th century.

A multiple-choice quiz by kevinatilusa. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
kevinatilusa
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
124,080
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
707
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. One of the early examples of this genre is Richard Lovelace's 1649 poem "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars." Lovelace knew of the heartbreak of going off to fight because he himself had fought in which recent war(s)? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. On September 14, 1830, the Boston Daily Advertiser reported that the U.S.S. Constitution was to be scrapped. Two days later, a 21-year-old law student published "Old Ironsides", a poem which spearheaded the movement to restore her. Who was that law student? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. One of the Tennyson's most famous poems deals with the "Charge of the Light Brigade" in the Crimean War. According to Tennyson, how many soldiers rode with the brigade that day? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. One poet who was more famous for two poems written upon the death of Abraham Lincoln served as a nurse during the American Civil War and based his "The Wound Dresser" on his experiences there. Who was this poet? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. With the advent of World War I, the romanticism of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" was replaced by a much darker verse. Whose "Dulce Et Decorum Est" is a prime example of this gloom? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Another famous poem of the First World War is John McRae's 1915 "In Flanders Fields". From whose point of view is this poem told? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Our final World War I poem comes from Ireland, where William Butler Yeats wrote about what kind of soldier forseeing his death? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. After 20 years of relative peace, the world broke out into war again in 1939 and, sadly, there was more cause for poetry about the death of soldiers. Who wrote a 1945 poem about "The Death of the Ball Turrett Gunner"? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. World War II had begun on September 1, 1939 with Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland. What British-American author wrote a poem commemorating that awful day? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. We finish our journey in the Vietnam War, where Denise Levertov wrote a poem asking what question about the Vietnamese people? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. One of the early examples of this genre is Richard Lovelace's 1649 poem "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars." Lovelace knew of the heartbreak of going off to fight because he himself had fought in which recent war(s)?

Answer: English Civil War

Lovelace was an ardent supporter of the doomed King Charles I, and was extremely poor for most of his life due to his constant donations to the royalist cause. The poem describes its narrator's heartbreak after deciding that he must leave Lucasta for a more violent mistress, ending with the immortal line "I could not love thee Dear, so much,/ Loved I not honour more."
2. On September 14, 1830, the Boston Daily Advertiser reported that the U.S.S. Constitution was to be scrapped. Two days later, a 21-year-old law student published "Old Ironsides", a poem which spearheaded the movement to restore her. Who was that law student?

Answer: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The poem is a stunning example of reverse psychology. It exhorts the navy to go ahead and destroy the ship, because after all it only represents our freedom, and that doesn't really matter! The wood-hulled ship, which had been around since the Barbary Wars in the early 19th century, was promptly restored. It still remains in Boston Harbor.

To this day the navy claims that the original article in the Boston newspaper was a mistake. The navy was never really considering scrapping the ship, they merely wondered how much it would cost to restore it!
3. One of the Tennyson's most famous poems deals with the "Charge of the Light Brigade" in the Crimean War. According to Tennyson, how many soldiers rode with the brigade that day?

Answer: 600

"All in the valley of death/ Rode the six hundred" In actuality, there were 673 cavalrymen in the brigade, of whom 113 would not survive the charge. The charge was the finish of the much larger battle of Balaclava (involving approximately 25,000 troops).

Historians now believe that the brigade simply charged (or were ordered to charge) the wrong set of Russian guns. Tennyson realized this and wrote in his poem that "...the soldier knew/Someone had blunder'd/Their's not to reason why/Their's not to make reply/Their's but to do and die."
4. One poet who was more famous for two poems written upon the death of Abraham Lincoln served as a nurse during the American Civil War and based his "The Wound Dresser" on his experiences there. Who was this poet?

Answer: Walt Whitman

The two poems on the death of Lincoln are "O Captain, My Captain" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". "The Wound Dresser" is told from the point of view of an old man being asked by the young to tell of his experiences in the civil war. Whitman describes the rows upon rows of wounded soldiers in the hospital tent, many with horrific wounds.

Although he never met these soldiers before and never would again, he think that for one boy, "I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you".
5. With the advent of World War I, the romanticism of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" was replaced by a much darker verse. Whose "Dulce Et Decorum Est" is a prime example of this gloom?

Answer: Wilfred Owen

This is one of the most famous anti-war war poems. The title comes from the phrase "Dulce et Decorum Est, pro patria mori", which translates to say "It is sweet and noble, to die for one's country". It is taken from an Ode of Horace and also appears on a memorial ampitheater in Arlington National Cemetary in the United States. Owen urges us to "Not tell with such ardent jest...the old lie" (the title of the poem), and describes the horrors of war and of the death of a man who didn't get his gas mask on in time. Ironically, he himself fell victim to that lie; he was gunned down by machine fire a mere week before the armistice that ended the great war.
6. Another famous poem of the First World War is John McRae's 1915 "In Flanders Fields". From whose point of view is this poem told?

Answer: Soldiers killed at the battle of Ypres

"We are the dead. Short days ago/We lived...". Though the images are grave (literally, as there are "crosses, row on row"), this is not a poem against the war. To the contrary, McRae's dead do not want to have died in vain. Their souls "shall not rest" if others fail to take up their torch. Mcrae himself did not live out the war.

He died of pneumonia in 1918 while working as a surgeon in Boulogne. He lives on through his poetry and the symbolic use of red poppies (mentioned in this poem) as a memorial to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
7. Our final World War I poem comes from Ireland, where William Butler Yeats wrote about what kind of soldier forseeing his death?

Answer: An Irish Airman

"An Irish Airman Forsees His Death" was written in memory of Major Robert Gregory, the son of Lady Gregory (a close friend of Yeats). Like many Irishmen of the time, the airman is bitter about having to fight in a war he feels he is not a part of (Ireland was still part of England during World War I, so when England entered, it dragged Ireland with it).

As he puts it "Those that I fight I do not hate,/ Those that I guard I do not love." Nevertheless, he does not regret having to fight. To him, the rest of his life would be a mere "waste of breath" compared with the "lonely impulse of delight" he feels in the clouds.
8. After 20 years of relative peace, the world broke out into war again in 1939 and, sadly, there was more cause for poetry about the death of soldiers. Who wrote a 1945 poem about "The Death of the Ball Turrett Gunner"?

Answer: Randall Jarrell

The ball turrett was a plexiglass sphere on the underside of a bomber. One man (usually a short and small one) would squeeze inside and fire machine guns at any fighters attempting to attack the bomber. Jarrell remarked of the gunner "hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the fetus in the womb" and made this comparison in the opening lines of this very short poem.

A mere four lines later the poem ends with the death of the gunner, who says "they washed me out of the turret with a hose."
9. World War II had begun on September 1, 1939 with Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland. What British-American author wrote a poem commemorating that awful day?

Answer: W H Auden

Although originally from Great Britain, Auden had taken up a University Position in the United States, and he observed the early part of the war from "One of the dives/ On Fifty-second Street." Auden believed it would be up to later scholars to determine what had "driven a culture mad" to produce a man like Hitler.

Although Auden was never pleased with the poem, calling it "trash which [he was] ashamed to have written," it has become one of his most famous. It has gained new popularity in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, perhaps because of its imagery of skyscrapers that use "Their full height to proclaim/ The strength of Collective Man," and its statement that "Those to whom evil is done/ Do evil in return."
10. We finish our journey in the Vietnam War, where Denise Levertov wrote a poem asking what question about the Vietnamese people?

Answer: What Were They Like?

"What Were They Like?" is constructed as a series of six questions followed by (somewhat bitter) answers to those questions. For example, the second question, "Did they hold ceremonies/ to reverence the opening of buds?" is answered "Perhaps they gathered once to delight in blossom, / but after the children were killed / there were no more buds." It was meant to emphasize the humanity of the Vietnamese people, and how American soldiers were ruining that humanity. I hope you enjoyed this quiz!
Source: Author kevinatilusa

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bullymom before going online.
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