Poetry Trivia Questions
In case you missed them, here are the past five Columbia Granger's World of Poetry trivia questions of the day.
March 18
Question:
Who is the first English poet to secure an independent income solely through his writing?
Answer
Alexander Pope. Between his popular satires and his translations of Homer, Pope managed to have an income sufficient to afford a small villa at Twickenham, fully equipped with an artificial grotto.
March 17
Question:
Who is regarded as an Irish national hero for penning an ironic essay suggesting that poor Irish children could be sold as food to the wealthy English?
Answer
Jonathan Swift. The essay was slyly titled "A Modest Proposal."
March 16
Question:
Who earned the following praise from Virginia Woolf: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon [her grave] . . . For it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds"?
Answer
March 15
Question:
What 18th-century poet and libertine masqueraded as Doctor Bendo, a fertility doctor?
Answer
John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester. Wilmot eventually fell out of favor with Charles II after accidentally giving him a copy of "A Satire on Charles II."
March 14
Question:
What 19th-century British poet and literary critic did Walt Whitman refer to as a 'literary dude"?
Answer
Matthew Arnold. Whitman saw him on his famous lecture tour of America, where Arnold decried low culture and philistinism, arguably two things Whitman glorified.
