Poets Trivia

1. Taras Shevchenko was born in 1814 in a village named Moryntsi, then in the Russian Empire. In which oblast of independent Ukraine is the village located?

From Quiz Life and Works of the Kobzar

Answer: Cherkasy

Moryntsi is located in Zvenyhorodka Raion, a sub-division of Cherkasy Oblast. The Oblast is located in central Ukraine. In the era of Shevchenko, the recent (until the end of the 18th century) era of the Cossack Hetmanate was a strong part of the local traditions in the Cherkasy area. A fascination with the Cossacks, their love of liberty and their separate traditions and mores from both Poles and Russians pervades the poet's whole work.

From Quiz William McGonagall, "The World's Worst Poet"

Answer: Dundee

McGonagall, in later life dubbed "The Bard of Dundee", was born in Edinburgh in 1825 (although he claims in his autobiography, "The Autobiography of Sir William Topaz McGonagall: Poet and Tragedian" that it was 1830). His parents were Irish and had come to Scotland to seek work in the dying industry of handloom weaving. Their stay in Edinburgh was brief, merely two years, before the encroaching mechanisation of the weaving process forced them to move on to seek work elsewhere. Paisley was the next destination, followed in quick succession by Glasgow and finally Dundee, where the family settled. The young McGonagall was sent to work in a mill for four years before being removed to follow in his father's footsteps and be trained as a handloom weaver.

From Quiz Birthplaces of some Famous American Poets

Answer: T.S. Eliot

The "love song" I referred to in the question is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

From Quiz Wild Lives of Famous Poets

Answer: Rimbaud

Arthur Rimbaud abandoned his writing at age 19 or 20 - unusual for most famous writers. He later had adventures in Africa, suffering amputation of a leg along the way. His relationship with Verlaine was quite dramatic - (see comments to the following question).

From Quiz The Fascinating Lives of Poets

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

This "Canterbury Tales" author was captured during the Hundred Years War. After the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, he was ransomed back by King Edward at a price of 16 pounds.

From Quiz Poet's Corner

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer was buried in the Abbey not for his literary accomplishments, but because of his position as Clerk of Works to the palace of Westminster.

From Quiz Birthplaces of some Famous American Poets

Answer: Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens wrote a wonderful poem called "Sunday Morning". It's probably my favorite of his works.

From Quiz Wild Lives of Famous Poets

Answer: Verlaine

Paul Verlaine's life was apparently the wildest of the wild. He eventually abandoned his wife for a relationship with Rimbaud - then tried to shoot him.

From Quiz Poet's Corner

Answer: Edmund Spenser

Spenser was buried very near Chaucer, thus starting the tradition of burying poets near each other in the Abbey.

From Quiz Life and Works of the Kobzar

Answer: Karl Bryullov

Bryullov was a painter himself, who specialized in painting scenes from history, including a painting on the destroyed Roman city of Pompeii. He also painted country scenes from 19th-century Italy, as well as portraits of famous men and women of the Tsarist court. The reason compelling Bryullov to purchase Shevchenko's freedom was the former's respect for the latter's artistic talent and his opposition to the inhumane conditions of the enserfed population.

From Quiz Birthplaces of some Famous American Poets

Answer: e. e. cummings

e.e. cummings' (yes, he liked to spell his name like that) poems are interesting yet hard to understand at times because of the lack of any punctuation and very odd word choices in his poetry.

From Quiz Wild Lives of Famous Poets

Answer: Nerval

Gerard De Nerval was a colorful, but less-than-stable fellow. He ended his life at the end of a rope.

From Quiz The Fascinating Lives of Poets

Answer: Alexander Pope

Due to a curvature of the spine, Pope was only four feet six inches tall. In his "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," he implied that his gift of poetry had not compensated for his failure to lead a "normal" life: "I left no calling for this idle trade, / No duty broke, no father disobeyed. / The Muse but served to ease some friend, not wife, / To help me through this long disease, my life." As a Catholic, Pope could not attend a University, and he received private education, even at times teaching himself.

From Quiz Poet's Corner

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Kipling was the first English author to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

From Quiz Wild Lives of Famous Poets

Answer: Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire's life was filled with dissipation. He was at times enrolled to study law (as were many of these poets) and to become a priest. The word "moderation" was not in his vocabulary. In addition to his writings, he translated Poe.

From Quiz The Fascinating Lives of Poets

Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley abandoned his wife in order to run off with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Once his wife had drowned herself, Mary Godwin became Mary Shelley, the famous author of "Frankenstein."

From Quiz Poet's Corner

Answer: Laurence Olivier

Considered by many to be the greatest actor of the twentieth century, Olivier performed not only in the classics, but popular films such as "Marathon Man", "The Boys from Brazil" and "Sleuth".

From Quiz US Poets Laureate

Answer: James Dickey

Dickey served in the Air Force in both World War II and the Korean War. Following the Korean War he taught at the University of Florida and then worked several years at writing copy for Coca Cola and Lays Potato Chips. About his advertising career he said, "I was selling my soul to the devil all day...and trying to buy it back at night." From 1968 until his death in 1997 he taught at the University of South Carolina. His 1965 work, "Buckdancer's Choice: Poems" won the National Book Award.

From Quiz William McGonagall, "The World's Worst Poet"

Answer: In the fight with Macduff, McGonagall refused to die

A commemorative article in "The Guardian" provides a rather fine description of the event: 'The show consisted of selected highlights rather than the entire play. On one occasion, repeating the duel with Macduff for a third time, by audience demand, McGonagall refused to go down, as obliged by the script, when his opponent ran him through with his sword ("Macbeth", V, viii). According to a review in the "Dundee People's Journal", Macbeth "maintained his feet and flourished his weapon about the ears of his adversary", continuing to cry, "Lay on, Macduff; / And damned be he that first cries 'Hold'". Damned, rather, be Shakespeare's stage direction that states, "Macbeth slain". Eventually, the reviewer in the "Journal" wrote, Macduff resolved the matter "in a rather undignified way by taking the feet from under the principal character".'

From Quiz British World War I Poets

Answer: Of tuberculosis

Ivor Gurney [1890-1937], usually called Bertie, was an English composer and poet. In WWI, he was wounded in the arm in April 1917, and gassed near Passchendaele in September 1917. He wrote two books of war poetry, one in 1917, and the other in 1919. After the war, Gurney, who was bipolar, was declared insane by his family, and was committed to a mental institution. He died of tuberculosis in the City of London Mental Hospital in 1937, fifteen years after being committed there.

From Quiz Birthplaces of some Famous American Poets

Answer: Langston Hughes

Hughes is easily considered the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance with poems such as "Dream Deferred", "I, Too", and, my favorite, "Mother to Son".

From Quiz Wild Lives of Famous Poets

Answer: Novalis

The writer known as Novalis was engaged to marry early in his teens - but lost his fiancee at an early age.

From Quiz The Fascinating Lives of Poets

Answer: Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb was better known as an essayist than a poet. Together, he and his sister Mary wrote "Tales from Shakespeare," a collection for children.

From Quiz Poet's Corner

Answer: David Garrick

Garrick also studied law and was a wine merchant before finding his true metier. He was manager and co-owner of the famous Drury Lane theatre.

From Quiz Life and Works of the Kobzar

Answer: Haidamaky

Haidamaky is a term meaning, in general, "Ukrainian insurgent". The specific uprising that Shevchenko immortalized was directed against both the Russian Empire and the Polish nobility (szlachta), that was infringing on the rights of the Ukrainians in the Commonwealth. The poem was released as a separate book in 1841. It's divided in 11 sections, its plot line interweaving the broad struggle for liberation and emancipation both from foreign rule and harsh living conditions with the personal dramas and sacrifices of those involved, high and low, mighty and meek. Later, "Haidmaky" was included in reprints of the "Kobzar".

From Quiz Birthplaces of some Famous American Poets

Answer: Allen Ginsberg

Ginsberg was considered the Beat Generations most eloquent and persistent spokesperson.

From Quiz Wild Lives of Famous Poets

Answer: Hesse

Hermann Hesse may be more well-known for his novels and stories, but he was also the author of some interesting poetry. Unhappy at school, suicidal at times, and a participant in some failed marriages, Hesse attempted to find some peace via Jungian analysis.

From Quiz The Fascinating Lives of Poets

Answer: Coleridge & Samuel Taylor Coleridge

He managed, with the help of his brother, to get himself discharged for reasons of insanity. Coleridge is most well known for his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

From Quiz Poet's Corner

Answer: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Sheridan, like Garrick, was also a co-owner and manager of the Drury Lane theatre. He later became a member of Parliament and argued against the English war on the American colonies.

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Last Updated Oct 25 2025 5:50 AM

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