Poetic Parodies

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1. Which poet is being parodied in these lines by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s son Hartley? "He lived amidst the untrodden ways To Rydal Lake that lead; A bard whom there were none to praise, And very few to read." Percy Bysshe Shelley Oliver Goldsmith John Keats William Wordsworth

2. "The stately homes of England, How beautiful they stand, Amidst their tall ancestral trees O’er all the pleasant land!" The words are those of Mrs Felicia Dorothea Hemans, who died in 1835, but who parodied them in a musical comedy in 1938? Jerome Kern Ivor Novello Noel Coward Lionel Monckton

3. The following anonymous lines are a parody of “The Bells” by which American poet? "Hear the fluter with his flute, Silver flute! Oh, what a world of wailing is awakened by its toot! How it demi-semi-quavers On the maddened air of night, And defieth all endeavors To escape the sound or sight Of the flute, flute, flute, With its tootle, tootle, toot …." Walt Whitman Edgar Allan Poe Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Ezra Pound

4. Which Victorian poet is being parodied here? "Oh, to be in England Now that April’s there! And whoever wakes in England Sees some morning, in despair, There’s a horrible fog in the heart of the town, And the greasy pavement is damp and brown, While the raindrop falls from the laden bough, In England – now!" Elizabeth Barrett Browning Alfred Lord Tennyson Robert Browning Matthew Arnold

5. "'You are old, Father William.' the young man cried. 'The few locks that are left you are gray. You are hale, Father William – a hearty old man: Now tell me the reason, I pray.'" These original lines are from “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them,” by Robert Southey. Which English humorist memorably parodied them in a classic children’s book? Lewis Carroll Roald Dahl Beatrix Potter Edward Lear

6. Here is a stanza from “Octopus – Written at the Crystal Palace Aquarium.” Which poet is being parodied? "O breast, that ‘twere rapture to writhe on! O arms ‘twere delicious to feel Clinging close with the crush of the Python, When she maketh her murderous meal! In thy eightfold embraces enfolden, Let our empty existence escape: Give us death that is glorious and golden, Crushed all out of shape!" Ernest Dowson Francis Thompson Oscar Wilde Algernon Swinburne

7. "As I was a-walkin’ the jungle round, a-killin’ of tigers and time, I seed a kind of an author man a-writin’ a rousin’ rhyme. ‘E was writin’ a mile a minute an’more, an’ I sez to ‘im: “’Oo are you?” Sez ‘e: “I’m a poet - ‘Er Majesty’s Poet – soldier an’ sailor too!” An’ ‘is poem began in Ispahan an’ it ended in Kalamazoo. It ‘ad army in it, an’ navy in it, an’ jungle sprinkled through, For ‘e was a poet – ‘Er Majesty’s Poet – soldier an’ sailor too!" Which British poet is Guy Wetmore Carryl parodying here? Sir Henry Newbolt Alfred Noyes John Masefield Rudyard Kipling

8. "What! Still alive at twenty-two, A clean upstanding chap like you? Sure, if your throat ‘tis hard to slit, Slit your girl’s, and swing for it! Like enough, you won’t be glad When they come to hang you, lad; But bacon’s not the only thing That’s cured by hanging from a string." Hugh Kingsmill wrote these lines, parodying which British poet? T S Eliot A E Housman W H Auden John Betjeman

9. "I must go down to the seas again, where the billows romp and reel. So all I ask is a large ship that rides on an even keel, And a mild breeze, and a broad deck with a slight list to leeward, And a clean chair in a snug nook, and a nice kind steward." Which Poet Laureate is parodied in these lines? John Masefield Ted Hughes Robert Bridges Alfred Lord Tennyson

10. "Hush, hush! Nobody cares! Christopher Robin Has Fallen Down- Stairs." Which children’s writer is being parodied here? Kenneth Grahame Beatrix Potter A A Milne Enid Blyton