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British World War I Poets Trivia Quiz

Many of World War I's finest poets died on the Western front. However, not all of them did. Can you identify how each of the following poets met their end? I have given you a tidbit of each poet's work to whet your appetite.

A multiple-choice quiz by alliefarrell. Estimated time: 7 mins.

Author
alliefarrell

Time
7 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
243,588

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
354

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Siegfried Sassoon is, perhaps, the best-known First World War poet. He wrote, in "Counter-Attack", "He crouched and flinched, dizzy with galloping fear,/Sick for escape - loathing the strangled horror/And butchered, frantic gestures of the dead." How did Siegfried Sassoon die? Hint

From machine gun fire at the Battle of the Somme

Of old age

From enemy fire during the Battle of the St. Quentin Canal

Of tuberculosis

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Question 2 of 10

2. Edward Thomas wrote, in "Cherry Trees", "The cherry trees bend over and are shedding/On the old road where all that passed are dead,/Their petals, strewing the grass as for a wedding/This early May morn where there is none to wed." How did Edward Thomas die? Hint

Of a head wound at the Battle of the Somme

From machine gun fire at the First Battle of the Marne

Killed in action at the Battle of Arras

Of pneumonia

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Question 3 of 10

3. Rudyard Kipling was not just a novelist; he wrote poetry also. In two lines, he sums up his feelings about the war in "Epitaphs of the War - An Only Son": "I have slain none except my Mother. She/(Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me." How did Rudyard Kipling die? Hint

Of a heart attack

Killed in action at the Battle of Verdun

Of a cerebral hemorrhage

From mustard gas at the Second Battle of Ypres

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Question 4 of 10

4. Charles Hamilton Sorley wrote the poem "When you see Millions ...": "When you see Millions of the mouthless dead/Across your dreams in pale battalions go,/Say not soft things as other men have said,/That you'll remember. For you need not so." How did Charles Hamilton Sorley die? Hint

Of a wound turned septic after the Battle of Cambrai

Of wounds at the Battle of the Somme

Shot in the head by a sniper at the Battle of Loos

Of gangrene

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Question 5 of 10

5. Ivor Gurney, in "To His Love", wrote these lines: "Cover him, cover him soon!/And with thick-set/Masses of memoried flowers - /Hide that red wet/Thing I must somehow forget." How did Ivor Gurney die? Hint

Of pneumonia

From enemy fire at the Battle of the Somme

Shot at Hill 145 [also known as Vimy Ridge]

Of tuberculosis

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Question 6 of 10

6. Wilfrid Owen is one of the best-known First World War poets, and deservedly so. In his poem "Mental Cases", he writes "These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished./Memory fingers in their hair of murders,/Multitudinous murders they once witnessed./Wading sloughs of flesh these helpless wander,/Treading blood from lungs that had loved laughter." How did Wilfrid Owen die? Hint

Of pneumonia at his home in Shropshire, England

In a trench at Ypres, Belgium

On a bridge at Ors, France

As a sapper at the Somme, France

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Question 7 of 10

7. Thomas Hardy himself had words to say about World War One. In "Channel Firing" he wrote "That night your great guns, unawares,/Shook all our coffins as we lay,/And broke the chancel window-squares,/We thought it was the Judgment Day/" How did Thomas Hardy die? Hint

Of pneumonia

Of pleurisy

Of tuberculosis

Of malaria

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Question 8 of 10

8. Julian Grenfell wrote this about WWI in his poem "Into Battle": "The thundering line of battle stands,/And in the air death moans and sings;/But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,/And Night shall fold him with soft wings." How did Julian Grenfell die? Hint

From a head wound at the Second Battle of Ypres

Took his own life shortly after the war

Drowned in the mud at Passchendaele

Shot down in a dogfight over enemy territory

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Question 9 of 10

9. Rupert Brooke wrote these lines about WWI in his poem "The Soldier": "If I should die, think only this of me:/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is forever England." How did Rupert Brooke die? Hint

Of enteric fever at Gallipoli

From blood poisoning on a troop ship

Of wounds at the Battle of Basra

From chlorine gas at the Second Battle of Ypres

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Question 10 of 10

10. Isaac Rosenberg wrote this about WWI in his poem "Returning, We Hear the Larks": "Sombre the night is./And though we have our lives, we know, What sinister threat lurks there./...But hark! joy-joy-strange joy!/Lo! heights of night ringing with unseen larks./Music showering on our upturned list'ning faces." How did Isaac Rosenberg die? Hint

Shot at the Second Battle of the Marne

Of dysentery at the military base at Salonica

Died of wounds at the Battle of Amiens

Killed by a sniper at the Second Battle of the Somme

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Of old age

Siegfried Sassoon [1886-1967], died of old age in Somerset, England. He did fight in WWI with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and was, apparently, manically courageous, was decorated for his bravery, and was nicknamed "Mad Jack" by his men for his suicidal exploits. During WWI he wrote satirical anti-war verse, and after the war, he became a prolific writer of poetry.

Answer: Killed in action at the Battle of Arras

Philip Edward Thomas [1878-1917] died in the Battle of Arras, helping the French to hold Arras by means of a series of medieval tunnels beneath the city that were unknown to the Germans. Thomas need not have joined up; as a married man he was not required to enlist in the army. He joined the Artists' Rifles in 1915. Most of his non-war poetry is about the English countryside.

Answer: Of a cerebral hemorrhage

Rudyard Kipling [1865-1936] died at age 70; he was too old to fight in WWI. However, his only son John died at the Battle of Loos in 1915; the lines I chose reflect Kipling's personal loss. Each gravestone that lays upon the Western Front bears the inscription "Their Name Liveth For Evermore" - these words were chosen by Kipling, who joined the War Graves Commission after the death of his son.

Answer: Shot in the head by a sniper at the Battle of Loos

Charles Hamilton Sorley [1895-1915], from Aberdeen, Scotland, was only 20 years old when he died, and had already been made a Captain. He had begun studying at University College, Oxford, for a year before the war was declared, and he left his studies to join up. A book by the popular novelist, Robert Goddard, entitled "In Pale Battalions" refers to the above poem.

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.

Answer: On a bridge at Ors, France

Wilfrid Owen [1893-1918] died trying to lead his men across a bridge over the Sambre Canal at Ors, France. The great tragedy of it was that he died seven days before the Armistice; the telegram announcing his death reached his parents on Armistice Day. Wilfrid Owen received the Military Cross for bravery at Amiens.

Answer: Of pleurisy

Thomas Hardy [1840-1928], who was born, raised and died in Dorset, England, was one of the great Victorian writers. He is known for his beautiful but melancholy verse, based mainly on nature themes, and famed for his fatalistic novels such as "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and "Tess of the D'Ubervilles".

His ashes werwe buried in Westminster Abbey but his heart was buried alongside his wife, in the parish church in Stinsford, Dorset.

Answer: From a head wound at the Second Battle of Ypres

Julian Grenfell [1888-1915] died shortly after the Second Battle of Ypres from a head wound. He was treated, to no avail, in a hospital in Boulogne, France. Born in London, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, this young army captain rose quickly in the ranks, and received a DSO [Distinguished Service Order] for a daring feat of reconnaissance in November 1914.

Answer: From blood poisoning on a troop ship

Rupert Brooke [1887-1915], on a troop ship en route to the Dardanelles and the Battle of Gallipoli, was already weak from sunstroke when a mosquito bite on his lip became infected; the blood poisoning from the bite killed him. His fame was such that his obituary in the Times was written by Winston Churchill, a great irony, as it had been Churchill who had conceived of the Gallipoli disaster that cost Brooke his life.

Answer: Killed by a sniper at the Second Battle of the Somme

Isaac Rosenberg [1890-1918] was raised in a poor Jewish district of east London; his parents moved there from Bristol so that he could get a proper Jewish schooling. Later he gained sponsorship to study at the Slade School of Art. When war was declared, he enlisted, despite misgiving about the war.

He made it clear that he was joining up not out of patriotism, but to help support his mother financially. When Rosenberg was killed, he was initially buried in a mass grave, but his remains were identified, and he was reburied in a military cemetary in France.

He was one of few war poets who wasn't an officer.

Source: Author alliefarrell

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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