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Neoclassical Poetry

Created by skylarb

Fun Trivia : Quizzes : Poetry
Neoclassical Poetry game quiz
"Labels, labels everywhere. Now we explore "neoclassical" poetry, with an emphasis on Pope and Dryden."

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  



1. John Donne is, in some sense, the originator of metaphysical poetry. But who is most closely associated with the "founding" of neoclassical poetry?

    William Wordsworth
    Alexander Pope
    Ben Jonson
    George Herbert


2. Which of the following is not generally considered to be a neoclassical poet?
    John Dryden
    Henry Vaughan
    Alexander Pope
    Ben Jonson


3. Which of the following is not a common feature of neoclassical poetry?
    Fantastic comparisons
    Use of the rhymed couplet
    Imitation of classical forms and allusion to mythology
    An effort to represent human nature


4. Neoclassicists tended to view poetry as the result of genius overflowing from the mind out onto the page. They also considered poetry to be an expression of the individual, inner self.
    True
    False


5. Most neoclassical poets viewed the world in terms of a strictly ordered hierarchy. What was this hierarchy called?
    The Foundational Ladder
    The Way of the World
    The Great Chain of Being
    The Order of Angels


6. He wrote both religious and secular poetry. One of his poems urged virgins to make the most of their time.
    Alexander Pope
    Robert Herrick
    John Dryden
    Ben Jonson


7. Why didn't Alexander Pope attend an English university?
    Asthma, headaches, and spinal deformity made him an invalid
    He was a Catholic, and therefore forbidden from attending
    He just wasn't bright enough
    He lived in Italy until the age of 27


8. Alexander Pope coined many a modern day cliché. Which of the following did not originate with him?
    Let not the sun go down upon your wrath
    A little learning is a dangerous thing
    To err is human, to forgive divine
    Fools rush in where angels fear to tread


9. Robert Herrick's poem "The New Year's Gift" celebrates Christ's:
    Resurrection
    Crucifixion
    Ascension
    Circumcision


10. John Dryden wrote "Absalom and Achitophel." Who was Achitophel, historically speaking?
    Absalom's advisor
    Bathsheba's first husband
    King David's son
    A Judge of Israel


11. Who did Dryden use Absalom to represent, allegorically, in his satire "Absalom and Achitophel"?
    Cromwell
    The Earl of Shaftesbury
    The Duke of Monmouth
    Charles II


12. Complete this famous quote by John Dryden: "Who think too little, and who talk too ____"
    long
    much
    fast
    often


13. Who wrote "No farther seek his merits to disclose, / Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, / (There they alike in trembling hope repose) / The bosom of his Father and his God."
    William Collins
    Alexander Pope
    Ben Jonson
    Thomas Gray


14. "But Shadwell never deviates into sense." This clever insult comes from what mock heroic by John Dryden?
    Absalom and Achitophel
    Alexander's Feast
    The Dunciad
    Mac Flecknoe


15. You've probably heard of "damning with faint praise." But where did the phrase originate?
    Pope's "An Essay on Criticism"
    Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel"
    Gray's "The Epitaph"
    Pope's "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot"


16. In his "Essay on Criticism", Pope bemoans the predictability of much poetry. Complete this quote: "While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, / With sure returns of still expected rhymes. / Where'er you find 'the cooling western breeze' / In the next line, it 'whispers through _____'."
    Answer: (One Word)


17. What Pope poem begins, "In these deep solitudes and awful cells, / Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells, / And ever-musing melancholy reigns; / What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?"
    The Rape of the Lock
    Eloisa to Abelard
    The Dunciad
    Solitude: An Ode


18. Pope made money by selling subscriptions to his translation of this classical epic.
    The Illiad
    The Aeneid
    The Odyssey
    The Bahagavad Gita


19. This famous neoclassical poet wrote on profound themes such as death, but he also had a lighter side. He once wrote an ode to a cat drowned in a tub of gold fishes.
    William Collins
    Alexander Pope
    Ben Jonson
    Thomas Gray


20. His "To Penthurst" is considered to be one of the primary texts of the neoclassical movement.
    Ben Jonson
    Thomas Carew
    Sir John Denham
    John Dryden


21. Sir John Denham commemorated this poet, referring to him as "Old Chaucer" who, "like the morning star", descends "to the shades," so that "Darkness again the Age invades."
    John Donne
    William Shakespeare
    John Dryden
    Abraham Cowley


22. Scholars often argue that Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man" presents the worldview of a Deist. But in this poem, John Dryden explicitly disputes Deism.
    Religio Laici
    Absalom and Achitophel
    The Dunciad
    The Hind and the Panther


23. Fill in the missing word from Pope's "An Essay on Man": "If man alone engross not Heav'n's high care, / Alone made perfect here, immortal there: / Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
/ Rejudge his justice, be the ___ of ___."
    Answer: (One Word)


24. What mock epic begins: "What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, / What mighty contests rise from trivial things"?
    Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe"
    Pope's "The Rape of the Lock"
    Pope's "The Dunciad"
    Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel"


25. The hero of this mock epic is Lewis Theobald. The poet describes him as reclining on the lap of his mother, beneath whose throne "Science groans in chains, / And Wit dreads exile, penalties, and pains."
    Pope's "The Rape of the Lock
    Pope's "The Dunciad"
    Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe"
    Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel"


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Compiled Jun 28 12