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20th Century English Poetry Trivia Quiz

All questions deal with the 20th century and with literature that was created on the British Isles (including Ireland). I hope you'll enjoy it.

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

Author
marienbart

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
76,075

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
823

Last 3 plays: Guest 152 (7/10), Guest 73 (2/10), Guest 47 (2/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. This early modernist author wrote a number of pessimist novels in the late 19th century. Due to the hostile reception of his latest novel he decided to start writing poetry (again). Although he is far more known for his novels, you may also remember him from the following poems: 'Hap', 'The Darkling Thrush', 'A Trampwoman's Tragedy' and 'Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave'. Who is this author? Hint

Thomas Hardy

E.M. Forster

Joseph Conrad

John Galsworthy

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Question 2 of 10

2. The following four poets are known as the 'World War I poets'. As a matter of fact only one of them survived World War I. Who is that lucky poet? Hint

Rupert Brooke

Siegfried Sassoon

Isaac Rosenberg

Wilfred Owen

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Question 3 of 10

3. Which poet wrote these famous poems: 'Easter 1916', 'No Second Troy' and 'Sailing to Byzantium'?

Answer: (Surname suffices; no punctuation if you use initials)

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Question 4 of 10

4. 1922 was the year of what are considered to be the greatest modernist novel and the greatest modernist poem. The novel of course is 'Ullysses' by James Joyce. What is the the name of the poem, beginning with the lines 'April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain'?

Answer: (Three Words, the first is 'the'.)

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Question 5 of 10

5. In his poem 'Musee des Beaux Arts', W.H. Auden describes the painting '(The Fall of) Icarus'. Which Flemish painter made this painting? Hint

Pieter Brueghel

Antoon van Dijck

Pieter Paul Rubens

Rembrandt van Rijn

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Question 6 of 10

6. Which Welsh poet wrote the following opening stanza of a great villanelle:'Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light'? Hint

Dylan Thomas

Hugh MacDiarmid

Robert Graves

Louis MacNeice

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Question 7 of 10

7. Which of the following was never poet laureate? Hint

Ted Hughes

Cecil Day-Lewis

John Betjeman

Sylvia Plath

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Question 8 of 10

8. 'The Movement' was a group of poets that included Kingsley Amis, Donald Davie and Thom Gunn, whose work reacted against what seemed to them 'the verbal excesses of Dylan Thomas, Edith Sitwell and others'. Which poet, known for his Hardyesque pessimism is regarded as the dominant figure of 'The Movement'? Hint

W.H. Auden

Harold Pinter

Ted Hughes

Philip Larkin

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Question 9 of 10

9. What Irish poet received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995?

Answer: (Two Words (watch your spelling))

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Question 10 of 10

10. What poet launched the so-called 'Martian School' of poetry with his poem 'A Martian sends a Postcard Home'? Hint

Seamus Heaney

Craig Raine

James Fenton

Tony Harrison

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Most Recent Scores

Dec 17 2024 : Guest 152: 7/10
Dec 01 2024 : Guest 73: 2/10
Nov 25 2024 : Guest 47: 2/10
Nov 15 2024 : Guest 160: 1/10
Nov 14 2024 : Guest 109: 6/10
Nov 14 2024 : Guest 47: 3/10
Nov 14 2024 : Guest 47: 0/10
Nov 07 2024 : Guest 152: 3/10

Score Distribution

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Thomas Hardy

If I had given you the titles of some of his novels, you would have certainly known him: 'Jude the Obscure', 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', 'Under the Greenwood Tree'...

2. The following four poets are known as the 'World War I poets'. As a matter of fact only one of them survived World War I. Who is that lucky poet?

Answer: Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon was the sole survivor. He died in 1967. Rupert Brooke died as a soldier in 1915 of dysentery. Isaac Rosenberg was very unlucky: he died about 7 months before the end of the war. But the most unlucky of them all was Wilfred Owen. He was killed in action a week before the war ended. Can you believe it?

3. Which poet wrote these famous poems: 'Easter 1916', 'No Second Troy' and 'Sailing to Byzantium'?

Answer: Yeats

And again: no, his name does not rhyme with 'Keats'.

Answer: The Waste Land

By Thomas Stearns Eliot.

5. In his poem 'Musee des Beaux Arts', W.H. Auden describes the painting '(The Fall of) Icarus'. Which Flemish painter made this painting?

Answer: Pieter Brueghel

Pieter Brueghel's dates are 1520-1569. The painting is to be found in the 'Museum of Fine Arts' in Brussels.

Answer: Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas was a brilliant talker and a considerable drinker. His poetry readings in the United States between 1950 and 1953 were enormous successes. He died suddenly in New York, in November 1953, of what was diagnosed as 'an insult to the brain' precipitated by alcohol. The legend goes that his last words were: 'I've had 18 straight whiskeys, I think that's the record'.

7. Which of the following was never poet laureate?

Answer: Sylvia Plath

Cecil Day-Lewis was poet laureate from 1968 till 1972, Betjeman from 1972 till 1984 and Ted Hughes from 1984 till his death in 1998. Sylvia Plath, being American, was never the British poet laureate, although her husband, Ted Hughes, was.

Answer: Philip Larkin

9. What Irish poet received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995?

Answer: Seamus Heaney

Some of his more famous works - 'Death of a Naturalist', 'North', 'The Haw Lantern'. Recently he was awarded the Whitbread Award for his translation of Beowulf.

10. What poet launched the so-called 'Martian School' of poetry with his poem 'A Martian sends a Postcard Home'?

Answer: Craig Raine

A poem written in a series of riddles

Source: Author marienbart

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