Special Sub-Topic: Literary Lines Click Here To Play: Literary Lines

The opening line to "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens is well-known, beginning with "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." What words immediately follow?

It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. The poem begins with the reference to best and worst, then goes to wisdom and foolishness, belief and incredulity, light and darkness, hope and despair - in that order.

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe may be the most famous American poem. The raven speaks one word in response to assorted questions and comments that are posed by the narrator. What is the first question asked by the narrator that elicits the famous "nevermore" response?

He asks the birds name.. The first time the Raven speaks is in response to the narrator's inquiry about the bird's name.

Everyone has heard John Donne's line: "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." The preceding line states that "any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in ...?

Mankind. Good line. It's endured for centuries.

"He did not wear his scarlet coat, for blood and wine are red ..." It's a good opening line for a poem. Who wrote it?

Oscar Wilde. It opens "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", Wilde's lengthy prison poem.

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" begins a well-known speech in Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Who speaks these famous lines?

Macbeth. Macbeth himself is the speaker of these famous words.

In one of his plays, Tennessee Williams has a character ask: "what's the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?" What is the answer?

Staying on as long as she can. The problem of Maggie the Cat in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

The narrator in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" tells his story to an individual who is attending a ... ?

Wedding. The listener is identified as a "Wedding Guest". One minute he's minding his own business, looking forward to a pleasant event. Then, from out of nowhere ...

In what play does Shakespeare observe that "conscience does make cowards of us all"?

Hamlet. From Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy.

"Please sir, I want some more" is a line from what work?

Oliver Twist. Poor hungry little ragamuffin.

Reference is sometimes made to "the playboy of the western world". Who wrote the play of that title?

John Millington Synge. Synge also wrote "Riders to the Sea".