FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!

Last Poet Standing Trivia Quiz

We all love poems. But do we know when great poets lived? Or when they died? Let see if you can guess, for each quartet of poets, which one was the last to depart.

A multiple-choice quiz by zordy. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
zordy

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
332,123

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
324

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Let's start with the English Romantics. Who died last among these giants?
Hint

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Lord Byron

John Keats

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. We all know the date of Shakespeare death (don't we?). But among these Renaissance greats, who was the last to leave this vale of tears?
Hint

Thomas Kyd

William Shakespeare

Ben Jonson

Christopher Marlowe

3. A jump to 20th century, when poets didn't seem to have names, only initials. When they died, I was already alive. But do I and you all remember the last whose death I should have read on newspaper?
Hint

T.S. Eliot

H.D.

e.e. cummings

W. H. Auden

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. Italian Renaissance poets. It's a long time ago, but you can guess which of these died last?
Hint

Dante Alighieri

Cecco Angiolieri

Petrarch

Boccaccio

NEXT>

Question 5 of 10

5. The last poet to die among these French was the one who coined the world "surrealism". Who is he?
Hint

Arthur Rimbaud

Charles Baudelaire

Paul Verlaine

Guillaume Apollinaire

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. The "Generation of '27" was an avant-garde movement which produced the most interesting works of Spanish poetry of 20th century. Which of these died last? Hint

Rafael Alberti Merello

Antonio Machado

Federico Garc�a Lorca

Pedro Salinas

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. Let's move to 19th century Germany. Which of these poets was the last to die? Hint

Friedrich von Schiller

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Heinrich von Kleist

Novalis

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. This quartet is a miscellaneous choice among bards from various culture. All of them wrote and died in 20th century: but who was the last to leave us?
Hint

Konstantin Kavafis

Fernando Pessoa

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Pablo Neruda

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. Now let's go back in time, so that time itself stretches a bit. It will be harder than usual to answer to the question. Which of these was the last to die? Hint

Ovid

Politian

Lucretius

Aeschylus

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. The Beat Generation: the American Myth lives on. But what about the poets? Who's the last poet standing?
Hint

Jack Kerouac

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Gregory Corso

Allen Ginsberg

(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

Select a User ID:

Choose a Password:

Your Email:

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Let's start with the English Romantics. Who died last among these giants?

Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge died in 1834, aged 61. The others left this world in the following order: Keats, 1821; Shelley, 1822; Byron, 1824.

2. We all know the date of Shakespeare death (don't we?). But among these Renaissance greats, who was the last to leave this vale of tears?

Answer: Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson (author of "Volpone", "The Alchemist" and other satirical plays, elegies, and translations from Horace, etc.) died at 65 in 1637.
The others: Shakespeare died in 1616, Marlowe in 1593, Kyd in 1594.

Answer: W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden died in 1973, aged 66. "Funeral Blues" is his most famous poem, aka "Stop All the Clocks".
Edward Estlin Cummings died in 1962; Thomas Stearns Eliot in 1965, and H.D. (born Hilda Doolittle) in 1961.

4. Italian Renaissance poets. It's a long time ago, but you can guess which of these died last?

Answer: Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio died at 62 in 1375.
Known for his "Decameron" novels, he wrote poetry in "volgare" (the language of the people) and he's considered one of the fathers of the modern Italian language.
The other ones: Dante Alighieri 1321; Francesco Petrarca 1374;
Cecco Angiolieri died circa 1312. He's famous for the rhyme "If I were fire, I would burn the earth".

5. The last poet to die among these French was the one who coined the world "surrealism". Who is he?

Answer: Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in 1918, at only 38, was a "French" poet whose real name was Wilhelm Albert Wlodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki. On top of that, he was born in Rome. His mother was Polish and his father was (probably) Swiss.
What about les autres?
Baudelaire, the "father" of all the others, died in 1867.
Rimbaud 1891; Verlaine 1896.

6. The "Generation of '27" was an avant-garde movement which produced the most interesting works of Spanish poetry of 20th century. Which of these died last?

Answer: Rafael Alberti Merello

Rafael Alberti Merello died at 96 in 1999, after a life of exile in Argentina and Italy. He left Spain after the Civil War and returned in 1977. Poet, thinker, politician, playwright and painter, he was certainly an interesting person. The others died as follows: Garc�a Lorca in 1936; Machado in 1939; Pedro Salinas y Serrano in 1951.

7. Let's move to 19th century Germany. Which of these poets was the last to die?

Answer: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe died at 82 in 1832. Probably the most German prominent writer: he was certainly a poet, but also everything you can think of in the field of culture.
Among his poetic works are: "Roman Elegies", "The Natural Daughter", "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", "The West-Eastern Divan".
Schiller died in 1805, Kleist committed suicide in 1811, and Novalis (real name Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg) died in 1801, aged 28.

8. This quartet is a miscellaneous choice among bards from various culture. All of them wrote and died in 20th century: but who was the last to leave us?

Answer: Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and Nobel laureate in 1971, died in 1973 at 69. His real name Neftal� Ricardo Reyes Basoalto.
Konstantin Kavafis was a modern Greek poet; his most famous poem is "Ithaca". He died in 1933.
Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Russian futurist, died in 1930 and the Portuguese Fernando Pessoa died in 1935.

9. Now let's go back in time, so that time itself stretches a bit. It will be harder than usual to answer to the question. Which of these was the last to die?

Answer: Politian

They all sound like Latin poets, but Politian or Poliziano, was an Italian Renaissance poet who died in 1494.
Aeschylus was one of the great tragic poets of Ancient Greece, and died circa 455 BC. Publius Ovidius Naso died in AD 17 or 18 and Titus Lucretius Carus in 55 BC.

10. The Beat Generation: the American Myth lives on. But what about the poets? Who's the last poet standing?

Answer: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti born March 24, 1919 was still in late 2010. We wish him a long life. In any case, he'll always be the last poet standing of the group.
Jack Kerouac departed this life in 1969, Allen Ginsberg in 1997 and Gregory Corso in 2001.

Source: Author zordy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.