Poet's Lines Trivia Quiz

Answer: Robert Frost

Frost's "The Road Not Taken" is one of the more recognized poems in the English language. It is also touted as one of the most misunderstood, especially the meaning of these last two lines. Frost published this poem in 1916, when he was 40, but he still had a long life road to travel, passing away in 1963 at the age of 88.

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

I hope the "nevermore" was a clue - "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is the poster child of the macabre and this poem is probably the most well-known example. The raven may represent his own dark mood over the loss of his beloved "Lenore", and these last lines seem to indicate his soul will be forever imprisoned. "The Raven" was published in 1845; in 1847, Poe's much-younger wife died of tuberculosis, and Poe followed in 1849 at the rather young age of 40.

Answer: William Wordsworth

Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is also known as "Daffodils". The poem was published in 1807 and was inspired by a walk that Wordsworth took in the Lake District in Cumbria, England. On the 200th anniversary of the poem, the Cumbrian tourism board released a rap version of the poem, with a person in a red squirrel suit rapping the poem. Search YouTube for "Daffodils MC Nuts" and judge for yourself.

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Kipling's "If" is often cited as an expression of the classic English stoicism that was a hallmark of the Victorian era. Various lines of this poem have been adopted by sports teams, military units and corporations as mottoes and by other artists as inspiration for their works.

Answer: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The historical charge of the Light Brigade of British cavalry against Russian forces occurred on October 25th 1854 during the Crimean War. The force was to have occupied an abandoned Turkish position to prevent the Russians from capturing it and the artillery there, but they ended up making a frontal assault against the main body of the Russian forces and were decimated. Tennyson wrote and published the poem in December 1854, barely six weeks after the action.

The poem has since represented steadfast performance of duty in the face of overwhelming odds: "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die."

Answer: Robert Frost

Frost's "Mending Wall" tells of the annual ritual in which he and his neighbor repair the stone wall on their property line. The neighbor makes the stated quote, believing that people should erect barriers not only between their properties but also between themselves. Frost is the narrator of the poem and apparently holds the opposite opinion, that walls and barriers are unnecessary and should be removed.

Answer: Robert Burns

Robbie Burns is the poetic soul of Scotland, and I hope the dialectic spelling of "Luve" gave you a good clue. The second stanza of "A Red, Red Rose" has even more Scottish vernacular:
"As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry."

Answer: Lord Byron

Giveaway: the first phrase is the poem's title, "She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. Byron was a leader of the Romantic movement, as beautifully expressed by this short lyric poem, one of his more well known works. Byron was a prominent and controversial figure, famously characterized by one of his amours as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know".

Answer: Ralph W. Emerson

I'm a fan of history, not so much poetry, but I could connect the clue of "shot heard 'round the world" with the battle of Lexington-Concord in the American Revolution and, as I hope you did, come up with Emerson and his "Concord Hymn". Emerson is a native Bostonian, very near Concord, and many of his works focus on New England.

Answer: John McCrae

John McCrae, Canadian physician and author, is probably the least well known poet in this quiz, but his powerful "In Flanders Fields" is certainly a well-recognized poem. McCrae wrote the piece in May 1915 on the day following his burial of a good friend and fellow soldier. McCrae himself died in WWI, of pneumonia in 1918.

This work has made the red poppy flower the symbol of war dead in many Western countries.