Lord Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib" Quiz

Answer: Hebrew Melodies

"Hebrew Melodies" contains thirty poems, most of which were created by Lord Byron to accompany music composed by Isaac Nathan. In the collection, the poem was called "The Destruction of Semnacherib".

"Lyrical Ballads" was written by Wordsworth and Coleridge. "Songs of Innocence and Experience" was written by William Blake.

Answer: 701 BC

The northern kingdom of Israel had previously been taken captive by the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah survived as their vassals. King Hezekiah, however, made a stand against Assyria by breaking religious idols and refusing to pay tribute. In response, in approximately 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem.

The siege is mentioned on Sennacherib's Annals of his military campaign in Judah and described in the Bible in 2 Kings 18-19 and Isaiah 36-37.

Answer: wolf

The imagery of shepherds protecting their folds of sheep from wolves and other predators is common in the Bible. George Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron, was born January 22, 1788. He was an English peer and politician, and one of England's great Romantic poets.

Answer: purple

Purple is the color of royalty. Gold represents wealth. In the opening lines of the poem, the Assyrians appear mighty and invincible, but a reversal is about to occur.

Byron was not a stranger to war himself. He joined the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire and died of a fever he contracted after the First and Second Siege of Missolonghi.

Answer: Galilee

In these verses, the Assyrian army is described in imagery that further emphasizes its power and might.

The Sea of Galilee is located in northeast Israel, in the Jordan Rift Valley. Much of the ministry of Jesus, as recounted in the New Testament, occurred on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The sea lies on an ancient trade route that once linked the northern empires with Egypt.

Answer: anapestic

The poem is written in rhymed couplets using anapestic meter. Anapestic meter contains two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one. In the poem, the meter mimics the rhythmic sound of horse hooves thundering on the ground as the Assyrians attempt to capture Jerusalem.

Answer: leaves

The Assyrians roll in looking fresh and powerful (like green leaves in summer), but their siege fails, and the next day their bodies lay strewn on the ground like the leaves in autumn. The poetic device used here is called a simile, which is a comparison using "like" or "as." Byron also employs alliteration in these verses by repeating the beginning "s" sound in "summer", "sunset", and "seen".

Answer: The Angel of Death

In the King James Bible, it is the Angel of the Lord who wreaks this destruction: "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." (2 Kings 19:34-35)

Answer: pride

The Assyrians - and their horses - lay dead. According to the Hebrew account, overnight, an angel killed 185,000 Assyrian troops. (In "A History of Israel", John Bright suggests this is a transliteration error and the real number was 5,180.) The Assyrians did not manage to capture Jerusalem, as indicated by the fact that its capture is not mentioned in Sennacherib's Annals.

Answer: surf

In the Bible, King Hezekiah made several efforts to protect Jerusalem. He had a tunnel dug to the Spring of Gihon to provide fresh water to the city and blocked the springs outside the city to deny the Assyrians water. He had the walls of the city fortified and towers constructed.

Answer: Baal

"And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal,
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!"

Baal was worshiped in several ancient Middle Eastern communities. He was a fertility deity and also known as the god of rain and dew. Ashur was an Assyrian city and important center of trade situated above the Tigris River in Mesopotamia in what is today northern Iraq.

Answer: Ogden Nash

Ogden Nash, known for having written over 500 pieces of light verse, makes a commentary on poetic devices in "Very Like a Whale", in which he opines:

"Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a wolf on the fold?
In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy there are great many things.
But I don't imagine that among them there is a wolf with purple and gold cohorts or purple and gold anythings."

Answer: Tom Sawyer

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was published in 1876. In the book, Tom Sawyer and his peers have to recite Byron's poem as well as the famous speech of Patrick Henry. Twain also made reference to Byron's poem in his early newspaper sketches.

Answer: Pam Poovey from "Archer"

Pamela "Pam" Poovey from the animated show "Archer" has the following lines tattooed on her back:

"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"

In the show, Pam Poovey was formerly the Human Resources Director for ISIS.

Answer: Australia

In a surprising upset, on May 27, 1878, the first official Australian cricket team to tour England defeated the MCC at Lord's Cricket Ground in St. John's Wood, London. A parody of Byron's poem published in "Punch" described the upset as follows:

"The Australians came down like a wolf on the fold,
The Marylebone cracks for a trifle were bowled."