Poetry Trivia Questions
In case you missed them, here are the past five Columbia Granger's World of Poetry trivia questions of the day.
January 9
Question:
Which of Shakespeare's sonnets provided the title for the first English translation of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past?
Answer
Sonnet 30. "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought / I summon up remembrance of things past."
January 8
Question:
What poet is best known for the poem he wrote three days before his public execution by Queen Elizabeth I?
Answer
Chidiock Tichborne is best known for his "Elegy" often referred to as "Tichborn's Elegy" or "Elegy, Written with His Own Hand in the Tower Before His Execution."
January 7
Question:
The poem "His Golden Locks Time Hath to Silver Turned" is sometimes attributed to George Peele, sometimes to Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, who recited the poem on his retirement from Queen Elizabeth's army. What other title is the poem known by, used also by Ernest Hemingway?
Answer
A Farewell to Arms .
January 6
Question:
Which line in Thomas Nashe's lyric "Adieu, Farewell Earth's Bliss" may be one of the most famous misprints in English verse?
Answer
It has been suggested that the line "Brightnesse falls from the ayre [air]" was meant to read "Brightness falls from the hair."
January 5
Question:
What Elizabethan sonnet does Philip Larkin allude to in the title of his poem "Sad Steps"?
Answer
Sir Philip Sidney's "With how sad steps, O moon, thou climbest the skies" Sonnet 31 from the Astrophil and Stella sequence.
