Poetry Trivia Questions

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

  • October 26

    Question:

    What poet's failed business venture involved the breeding of civet-cats for perfume?

    Answer ->

    Among his many unsuccessful business ventures, which included a wholesale hosiery business and a brief stint as a brick manufacturer, Daniel Defoe undertook the cornering of the civet-cat market.

  • October 25

    Question:

    Whom did Edgar Allan Poe call "One of the least intolerable of the school of Boston transcendentalists"?

    Answer ->

    Christopher Pearse Cranch

  • October 24

    Question:

    On what poet did Cecil Day Lewis initially base the character Nigel Strangeways, the detective of his crime novels?

    Answer ->

    Writing under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake, Day Lewis initially based the character on W. H. Auden, however he later made the character less extravagant.

  • October 23

    Question:

    What American poet invented a poetic form, based on Japanese forms, that consisted of a single stanza with lines of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 syllables successively?

    Answer ->

    Adelaide Crapsey called this form a "cinquain." She also is credited with codifying the rhymed epigram couplet.

  • October 22

    Question:

    What three poets produced the literary review L'étudiant Noir (The Black Student),a forerunner of the Négritude movement?

    Answer ->

    Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Damas.

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