Meter Magic Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Greenleaf Whittier

Snow Bound
"The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,..?

Born in 1807 of Quaker parents on a farm in Haverhill Massachusetts, John Greenleaf Whittier is the author of the poem, "Snowbound". At the age of 19, Whittier was first published by the "The Newbury Post Free Press". Whittier's sister sent one of his first poems, "The Exile's Express", to "The Newbury Post Free Press" and John's poems were published weekly in that newspaper. Under the guidance of the renowned abolitionist and publisher of "The Newbury Post Free Press", William Lloyd Garrison, Whittier became a strong supporter of the Abolitionist movement. His most famous work, "Snow Bound" firmly established his popular and financial success as a poet. John Greenleaf Whittier was a member of the "The Fireside Poets" group.

Answer: G. K. Chesterton

The Donkey
"When forests walked and fishes flew
and figs grew upon the thorn...."
G. K. Chesterton

Educated at St. Paul's School, London, G. K. Chesteron did not complete his course at the Slade School of Art. Chesterton's writing career began with menial jobs in the newspaper publishing field. His brother, Cecil, owned the newspaper, "The New Witness" and upon the death of the latter's death Gilbert took over its publication, and thus the start of his literary career.
G. K. Chesterton considered himself just a "jolly journalist". Gilbert Keith Chesterton is famous for his acumen, be it in literary criticism, religious philosophy, biographer, or author. An Anglican convert to Roman Catholicism, his popular success came with the publication of the Father Brown detective stories. The first of which, "The Innocence of Father Brown", was published in 1911. The poem "The Donkey" reflects G.K. Chesterton's religiosity in his writings, with the celebration of the humble donkey ridden by Christ as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Answer: Sara Teasdale

I Shall Not Care
"When I am dead and over me bright April
shakes her rain-drenched hair..."
Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale, winner of The Poetry Society's award in 1918 was also inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1994 to celebrate the body of her poetic works. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Sara was a sickly child and did not attend school until the age of nine and for only one year. In her early twenties, Sara toured Europe to enrich her limited education. During this period of her life, Sara met two men who loved her, one a business man, Ernst Filsinger, the other a romantic poet, Vachel Lindsay. Sara married Filsinger, but remained friends with Lindsay who retained his love and faithfulness for Sara all his life. Unhappy in her marriage, divorced and saddened by the suicide in 1931 of her life long friend, Vachel Lindsay, Sara Teasdale took her own life two years later, at the age of forty-nine. Her poetry reflects much of her unhappiness as seen in her poem, "I Shall Not Care."

Answer: Walter de la Mare

Silver
"Slowly silently now the moon
walks the world in it silver shoon ..."
Walter de la Mare

Walter de la Mare's first published work, written under the pseudonym Walter Raval, was "Songs of Childhood". This 1902 work had little success, however in 1912 the publication of "The Listeners" brought fame and a susbstantial government pension. Now financially stable, in 1908, Walter was able to retire from his position with the Anglo-American Oil Company and devote his time to his writing. Much like G. K. Chesterton, de la Mare has the ability to write in many genres but differed from the more philosophic Chesterton with his imaginative and romantic approach. "Silver", a poem of alliteration, assonance, and consonance, along with a gentle meter and peaceful aura is an example of how Walter de la Mare may appeal to young and older readers.

Answer: William Ernest Henley

Invictus
"Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole ...."
William Ernest Henley

The poem, "Invictus" was written by William Ernest Henley and is regarded as
Henley's emotional account of his hospital stay when his leg was amputated due to a tubercular infection. While in hospital Walter was visited by Robert Louis Stevenson who later based his creation of the pirate, Long John Silver, in the story "Treasure Island" on Henley. Stevenson and Henley became life long friends. J.M Barrie's character in his novel, Peter Pan, is said to be based on Henley's daughter, Margaret who died at the age of five.
Joseph Lister, Surgeon and "Father of Antiseptics", saved John's other leg which would have been amputated was it not for Lister's two year effort to prevent amputation. Henley remained in The Royal Hospital of Edinburgh for three years. "Invictus" was included in his collection of poetry in "In Hospital".
Henley's beginnings and education were not prestigious. Walter Henley's father was a bookseller and stationer. Henley's father's death in 1868 left the family of 6 children in debt to creditors.
A brilliant student, Walter Ernest Henley was unable to go to university due to lack of finances This circumstance did not alter his career. Henley as Editor, Journalist and Poet, was greatly admired in the literary world. His poem, "Invictus" sealed his stature as a great poet. William Ernest Henley died of tuberculosis in 1903.

Answer: Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book
"There is no frigate like a book
to take us lands away ..."
Emily Dickinson

These poetic lines written by Emily Dickinson are among the 1,700 plus poems
that she authored. Emily did not entitle her poems, and as the poem above demonstrates, Dickinson used the first line of her poem as the name of it.
"There is no Frigate like a Book" is an example of the many poems she has written with just a quatrain. "Morning is the Place of Dew" is another example of her 4 line poems. A better known poem, "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" contains more verses. Much of Emily's poetry centers on God, death and Nature.

Answer: Joseph Campbell

The Old Woman
As a white candle in a holy place,
so is the beauty of an aged face ...."
Joseph Campbell

Born in Ulster, known in ancient times as Udlach, Ireland, Joseph Campbell began his writing career with the publication of "Songs of Uladh". Using his Gaelic name, Seosamh Mae Cathmhaoil as author, Campbell also wrote lyrics for traditional Irish airs. Moving to Dublin with his family, Campbell also participated in the Easter Uprising as an intelligence agent and was interned for over a year. Campbell's poetry was respectful of everyday humanity, as the poem, "The Old Woman" exemplifies.
"My Lagan Love", an old Irish Air for which Campbell wrote the lyrics, shows his love of Ireland, which permeates his works. Lagan is a river in Ireland, and the lyrics of "My Lagan Love" written by Campbell, suggest that "Lagan" is an allegorical expression for Ireland. Having established in 1925 the First School of Irish Studies at Fordham University, New York, Joseph Campbell was a professor at Fordham and taught there for seven years. Joseph Campbell returned to his beloved Ireland in 1939 and settled in Glencree, County Wicklow.

Answer: Gerard Manley Hopkins

God's Grandeur
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil ...."
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Born to devout Anglican parents in 1854, Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet and Jesuit priest wrote the poem, "God's Grandeur". Highly intelligent and well-educated, (Oxford University), Hopkins met John Henry Newman, a former Anglican convert to Roman Catholicism at Oxford. Under Newman's influence, Gerard Hopkins eventually converted to Roman Catholicism . In 1848, Gerard Manley Hopkins was received into the priesthood in the order of the Society of Jesus. Father Hopkins, conflicted by his conscience in relationship to negation of self, burned all of his earlier writings. Writing in his journal, Hopkins conceived of the notion of what he termed "inscape", which is a glimpse of something that shows why God created it. Adapting this philosophy, Gerard Manley Hopkins resumed his writings and through them seeing God in all things. In "God's Grandeur", Hopkins shows how something as simple as shining crumpled aluminum foil might give the reader a glimpse of how Hopkins sees God in the world.

Answer: Rupert Brooke

The Soldier
"If I should die, think only this of me
That there is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England."
Rupert Brooke

Online photographs of the poet, Rupert Brooke, confirm his early twentieth century reputation as a very handsome man. An Englishman, Brooke was born in Warwickshire. Rupert Brooke became a Fellow at King's Cambridge. His writing career evolved through his extensive travels throughout the continent of Europe. Many of Brooke's travel letters were published in the "Westminister Gazette", which began his literary career.
While in the service of his country during World War I, Rupert saw naval action at Antwerp, Belgium. Because of this experience, Rupert Brooke, at that time penned five sonnets, the fifth and last one being, "The Soldier". Rupert Brooke died at the age of twenty-seven of blood poisoning while on his way to the Dardanelles.

Answer: William Allingham

The Fairies
"Up the airy mountain
Down the rushing glen ...."
William Allingham

True to his Irish heritage of fairies and folklore, William Allingham wrote the poem, "The Fairies". William Allingham was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland. He worked in the Customs Service, while also writing poetry, but became a full-time editor of "Fraser's Magazine" in 1870. Allingham's first book of poems was published in 1850, containing the poem, "The Fairies" with illustrations by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Moving to London in 1847, Allingham met and established a deep friendship with Alfrd Lord Tennyson. William Allingham's Diary was published after his death and reads like a "Who's Who" as Allingham's thoughts and memories of his contemporaries including, Robert Browning, William Thackeray, George Eliot and Dante Gabriel Rosetti are a major part of it.