Poetry Trivia Questions
In case you missed them, here are the past five Columbia Granger's World of Poetry trivia questions of the day.
February 1
Question:
What poet coined the phrase "The Lost Generation," referring to the generation of expatriate American writers who wrote in the years between the First World War and the Depression?
Answer
Gertrude Stein. Ernest Hemingway attributes the phrase to her in his memoir A Moveable Feast. He used it in an epigraph to THE SUN ALSO RISES (1926)
January 31
Question:
In the movie Il Postino , which real-life poet helps the mailman win the heart of his town's most beautiful woman?
Answer
Pablo Neruda. The film is based on the mailman's memoir.
January 30
Question:
What was Arthur Rimbaud's profession after he stopped writing poetry at the age of 20?
Answer
Rimbaud engaged in many business ventures, including being an arms dealer when he moved to Ethiopia.
January 29
Question:
What poem by Paul Verlaine was used to send secret messages to the French Resistance during the Second World War?
Answer
"Chanson d'Automne" (Autumn Song). The poem was broadcast on the BBC's French Service. When the first part of the first stanza was read ("Les sanglots longs des violons d'automne ," or "long sobs of autumn's violins"), it meant that the invasion of Normandy was imminent. When the second part was read ("blesse mon coeur d'une langueur monotone, " or "wound my heart with a montonous languor"), the invasion would occur in the next 48 hours
January 28
Question:
Which of William Blake's poems has become the unofficial anthem of the United Kingdom?
Answer
"And did those feet in ancient time" from the preface to "Milton: a Poem." This became, in 1916, the hymn titled "Jerusalem." It was famously featured in the movie Chariots of Fire , whose title comes from the same poem.
