Poetic Licence Trivia Quiz

Answer: Robert Frost

"The Road Not Taken" was first published in 1916.

American Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874 and died in Boston in 1963. He graduated as a class poet and his first published work "My Butterfly" earned him 15 dollars. He continued writing poetry but not many of his poems were published. He worked occasionally as a teacher but he was so frustrated with the apparent rejection from American publishers that he decided to go to England. While there he published two books and returned to America a couple of years later to re-establish his status as a leading poet. He was honoured by the U.S. Senate who passed a resolution that hailed Frost as a guiding light to the American people. He was also asked to read a poem on the occasion of J.F. Kennedy's inauguration as president. Some of his published work includes "A Boy's Will", "North of Boston", "New Hampshire", "A Further Range" and "Hard Not to be King".

Answer: Dylan Thomas

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" was written in 1947 and first published in 1951.

Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales in 1914 and died in New York in 1953. He started writing poetry at a very early age despite not being a very good student. He left school at 16 to work as a newspaper reporter. His first book of poems titled "18 Poems" was published in 1934 and two years later he published his second book of poems called "25 Poems". He moved to London when he was 21 and got married in 1937. Apart from poetry he wrote prose and film scripts. He was well known as a heavy drinker. He died in New York while on tour. His play for voices "Under Milk Wood" was first broadcast in 1953 and was published the following year.

Answer: Matthew Arnold

"Dover Beach" was first published in 1867 in the collection "New Poems".

Mathew Arnold was born in Laleham, Middlesex in 1822 and died in Liverpool in 1888. He studied in Rugby, where his father was the headmaster, and continued his studies at Oxford's Balliol College. He started his career as a private secretary to Lord Lansdowne and four years later was appointed as inspector of schools. He published his first collection of poems, "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems", using a pseudonym. In 1853 he published "Poems" under his own name. Apart from poetry, Arnold wrote prose and he also a literary critic.

Answer: John Keats

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" was published in 1820 in the collection "Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems".

John Keats was born in London in 1795 and died in Rome in 1821 from tuberculosis. He went to school at Enfield where at first he didn't show much appetite for learning but started reading avidly when he was 14. He served as an apprentice to a surgeon and later served as junior house surgeon. He started writing poetry and his first work was the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" in 1816. His first published work came out in 1817 and was called "Poems". "Endymion", his first long poem, was published in 1818. In the same year he had the first symptoms of tuberculosis. He penned his most famous works in 1819. These include "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode to a Nightingale", "Lamia" and "Hyperion". Due to his deteriorating condition he travelled to Italy with a friend in 1820 but his illness was irreversible.

Answer: Sylvia Plath

"Mirror" was written in 1961 but was published 10 years later in the posthumous book "Crossing the Water".

Sylvia Plath was born in Boston in 1932 and died in London in 1963. She was the daughter of a college professor. As a student she won many awards and continued her studies at Smith College where she won a fiction competition for a magazine and was guest editor to the same magazine the following year. She was writing poetry while at school and had poems published in various magazines. She started suffering bouts of depression during her studies at Smith. She went to Cambridge on a Fulbright scholarship. There she met and married Ted Hughes. Their marriage broke down in 1962 and a few months later she took her own life. During her lifetime she published the book "Bell Jar" and a collection of poems titled "Colossus".

Answer: Elizabeth Bishop

"One Art" was published in 1976 as part of the collection "Geography III".

Elizabeth Bishop was born in 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts and died in 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was educated at the Walnut Hills School for Girls and later at the Vassar College. She only wrote 101 poems which were published in three poetry collections. In 1966 she received the Pulitzer Prize for the poetry collection "Poems: North & South/A Cold Spring". In 1976 she won the acclaimed Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Answer: Robert Burns

"A Winter Night" was written in 1786.

Robert Burns was born in January 1759 in Alloway, Scotland and died in 1796 in Dumfries, Scotland. He started life as a tenant farmer before becoming an excise collector. He wrote poetry all his life and he is considered as the National poet of Scotland. He wrote about all aspects of life in Scotland. His first collection of poems, "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" was printed in 1786. Some of his best known poems are "To a Mouse", "Tam o' Shanter","Auld Lang Syne" and "A Red, Red Rose".

Answer: Thomas Hardy

The name of the poem was "According to the Mighty Working".

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Stinsford , Dorset and died in 1928 in Dorchester, Dorset. He could read before he went to school and he was trained as an architect. Both a novelist and poet Hardy drew inspiration for his works from his home county Dorset. He set his novels in fictional Wessex and concentrated on poetry after the negative criticism that he received for his novels, He was a prolific writer publishing more than a thousand poems during his lifetime. His first work to be published was "How I Built My House "in 1865. His first novel, which was never published, was "The Poor Man and the Lady".

Answer: Christopher Marlowe

The name of the poem was "Elegies, Book One, 5".

Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, Kent in 1564 and was killed in 1593 at the age of 29. During his short life he wrote plays and poetry that had a great influence on the works of Shakespeare. He studied at Corpus Christi, Cambridge on a scholarship. Some of his plays are "The Jew of Malta", "Edward the Second", "The Massacre at Paris" and "Doctor Faustus".

Answer: John Dryden

The poem was "To My Honor'd Kinsman, John Driden".

John Dryden was born in Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire in 1631 and died in London in 1700. He studied in Westminster school and Trinity College, Cambridge. He wrote poetry, prose, satirical verse and translated classical works to English. His translation of "The Aeneid" is considered as the best ever. Some of his best prose includes "The Conquest of Granada", "Marriage A-la-Mode", "All for Love", "Don Sebastian" and "Amphitryon". Some of his well known poems are "Absalom and Achitophel", "Annus Mirabilis", "Religio Laici" and "The Hind and the Panther". He is considered as one of the best poets and dramatists of England.