Poetry Trivia Questions

In case you missed them, here are the past five Columbia Granger's World of Poetry trivia questions of the day. .

  • August 20

    Question:

    What famous sonnet was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley as part of a competition with his friend Horace Smith over who could write a better poem in reaction to a news story about archeological discoveries in Egypt?

    Answer ->

    "Ozymandias"

  • August 19

    Question:

    What English novelist would turn to poetry after his novels were criticized for their frank treatment of sexuality?

    Answer ->

    Thomas Hardy

  • August 18

    Question:

    What Elizabethan poet described Petrarch's influence on verse writing as being like Procrustes' bed?

    Answer ->

    Because the sonnet had become so popular that poems that were too short for the form were stretched to fit it and those too long for it were cut short, Ben Jonson likened Petrarch's influence to Procrustes' infamously adjustable bed.

  • August 17

    Question:

    What poet described T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" as "piece of rhythmical grumbling"?

    Answer ->

    T.S. Eliot himself.

  • August 16

    Question:

    What poet was called "The World's Greatest Living Observer" by Elizabeth Bishop?

    Answer ->

    Marianne Moore

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