Who Wrote This? Trivia Quiz

Answer: William Shakespeare

This is one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets titled 'A Consolation'. Shakespeare published 154 sonnets in a quarto in 1609 and this was No. 29. It suggests that love brings optimism and hope to someone lonely and depressed.

Answer: Ben Johnson

The poem is called 'To Celia' and was published in a folio called 'Epigrams' in 1616. It is also included in Ben Johnson's comedy play 'Volpone'. Ben Johnson lived from 1572 - 1637 (the same time as William Shakespeare) and his writing was inspired by Greek and Roman classics.

Answer: James Thomson

This is not easily recognised, unless you watch the Last Night of the Proms in London. It is the first line of 'Rule Brittania'. The poem was written by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Augustine Arne as part of a masque about Alfred the Great which was first performed in 1740.

Answer: Robert Burns

The poem 'To a Mouse' was written in 1785 when Burns was ploughing his fields at Mossgrel Farm and destroyed a nest of mice. It expresses sympathy for the mice who lost their home. Burns is known as Scotland's Bard and his most famous creation is 'Auld Lang Syne'.

Answer: Thomas Gray

This is from 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' and was published in 1751. It was possibly started in 1742 and completed in 1750. The churchyard is thought to be St. Giles Parish Church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire where his aunt is buried. Thomas Gray is also buried there.

Answer: William Wordsworth

The poem is called 'The Daffodils' and was inspired by a walk with his sister, Dorothy on 15th April, 1802 when they saw a long belt of daffodils near Glencoyne Bay, Ullswater in the Lake District. He became friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. They were known as the Lake Poets.

Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley

The poem 'Ozymandias of Egypt' was written in 1817 as part of a poetry competition with a friend. It was published in the Examiner in 1818 under the pen name Gliaster. Ozymandias is an alternative name for the pharaoh Rameses ll.

Answer: Walter de la Mare

This poem is called 'The Listeners'. It was published in 1912. Walter de la Mare was fond of writing ghost stories and the theme of the unknown listeners in an empty house makes the poem seem supernatural and mysterious.

Answer: John Masefield

John Masefield was British Poet Laureate from 1937 until he died in 1967. 'Sea-Fever' was published in 1902 and the way it is written is supposed to represent the uneven movement of the sea. He was sent to sea aged 12 and loved the life but was unable to make that his career because of seasickness and other illness.

The first edition of his 'Collected Poems' in 1923 sold about 80,000 copies.

Answer: Rupert Brooke

The poem is called 'The Soldier'. The only battle in which Rupert Brooke was involved was in Antwerp and he survived. The poem was read from the pulpit of St. Paul's Cathedral on Easter Sunday, 1915, just three weeks before Rupert Brooke died from an infected mosquito bite.