FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about The Polymathic Geographer
Quiz about The Polymathic Geographer

The Polymathic Geographer Trivia Quiz


The answer in each case is simply the name of a country. Clues to the answer are in the quotations (mostly, but not always!), but you'll need to be well up on your literature, song lyrics and a little history to score well!

A multiple-choice quiz by frankmcvey. Estimated time: 8 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Geography Trivia
  6. »
  7. Geography - Miscellany
  8. »
  9. Difficult Geography

Author
frankmcvey
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
209,940
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
4 / 10
Plays
15287
Awards
Editor's Choice
Last 3 plays: Guest 165 (4/10), bradez (9/10), whistledown (5/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. "Speed, bonny boat, like a bird on the wing
Over the sea to Skye
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye"

In what country is Skye?
Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. "Well, how do you do, Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the glorious fallen in nineteen-sixteen,"

The title of this song contains the name you need.
Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. "When I was but thirteen or so
I went into a golden land,
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
Took me by the hand."

In what country are Chimborazo and Cotopaxi?

Answer: (One word, South America)
Question 4 of 10
4. "Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;
For the temple-bells are callin', and it's there that I would be--
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea;"

In what country is Moulmein?

Answer: (One word. Either the modern or the ancient name of the country will do.)
Question 5 of 10
5. "Even now
I know that I have savored the hot taste of life
Lifting green cups and gold at the great feast.
Just for a small and a forgotten time
I have had full in my eyes from off my girl
The whitest pouring of eternal light."

Country of origin of the poet, please.
Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

Country of origin of the poet, please
Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. "The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I've bade 'em good-by -- but I can't."

To what country is the poet referring?

Answer: (1898 Gold Rush-related)
Question 8 of 10
8. "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;"

Of which country's spring is the poet writing?
Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. "By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my 'satiable curiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!'
Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.'"

In which African country or countries is the Limpopo River?
Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. "When I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over"

In which country did the young man live?

Answer: (One Word, Nine Letters, No Worries)

(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Mar 12 2024 : Guest 165: 4/10
Mar 12 2024 : bradez: 9/10
Mar 10 2024 : whistledown: 5/10
Mar 10 2024 : Guest 172: 2/10
Mar 04 2024 : TurkishLizzy: 10/10
Mar 02 2024 : Xanadont: 10/10
Feb 22 2024 : CherryPie999: 10/10
Feb 17 2024 : PurpleComet: 6/10
Feb 09 2024 : Guest 170: 5/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "Speed, bonny boat, like a bird on the wing Over the sea to Skye Carry the lad that's born to be king Over the sea to Skye" In what country is Skye?

Answer: Scotland

The Second Jacobite Rebellion took place in Scotland in 1745. Charles Edward Stuart's attempt to reclaim the throne of Great Britain, lost by King James II in 1688, met with initial success, but his fortunes waned during the march to London to oust King George II.

"The Skye Boat Song" is a wistful Highland song written by Sir Harold Boulton (1859-1935), well after Charles' final defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Bonny Prince Charlie, as he was known to his followers, fled after the battle. With a large price on his head, legend has it that he ignominiously managed to escape to Skye, and thence to France, dressed as Flora McDonald's maid. The dream of restoring the Catholic Stuarts to the throne of Great Britain was over, and Charles died disgraced and disinherited in Italy in 1788; he lived considerably longer than many of the Highland clansmen whom he seduced to his cause, led to defeat and, in the end, abandoned to their fates.
2. "Well, how do you do, Private William McBride, Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside? And rest for a while in the warm summer sun, I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done. And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen When you joined the glorious fallen in nineteen-sixteen," The title of this song contains the name you need.

Answer: France

The quote is from Eric Bogle's fine anti-war song "The Green Fields of France", best performed, in my opinion, by the Eddie and Finbar Furey, the well-known Irish folk band. It was inspired by Bogle's visit to one of the great WWI cemeteries in Northern France. It concludes:

"But here in this graveyard, it's still No-Man's Land,
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand,
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
And a whole generation, who were butchered and damned".

It's hard to listen to it without getting a lump in the throat.
3. "When I was but thirteen or so I went into a golden land, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi Took me by the hand." In what country are Chimborazo and Cotopaxi?

Answer: Ecuador

From the poem "Romance", by W J Turner.

Chimborazo and Cotopaxi are both volcanoes, the former being one of the world's highest, and the latter one of its most beautiful volcanoes, right up there with Mt Fuji in Japan. G'wan, have a look:

http://www.planetecuador.net/images/cotopaxi.jpg
4. "Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst, Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst; For the temple-bells are callin', and it's there that I would be-- By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea;" In what country is Moulmein?

Answer: Burma

From Rudyard Kipling's "Mandalay", in which a British soldier, repatriated to a cold and dreary London after his service abroad, pines for his former life in Burma and the beautiful Burmese girl he left behind.

Kipling's poem referred to the Kyaikthanlan Pagoda; the view from there is reputed to be the most beautiful in Myanmar.
5. "Even now I know that I have savored the hot taste of life Lifting green cups and gold at the great feast. Just for a small and a forgotten time I have had full in my eyes from off my girl The whitest pouring of eternal light." Country of origin of the poet, please.

Answer: India

Born in Kashmir in the eleventh century, Bilhani (sometimes known as Chauras) remains popular in India to this day. This fragment is from "Black Marigolds" a part of the "Chauraspanchasika", translated by E Powys Mathers.

Many of you will remember it from John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row", where Doc read it aloud to the company during one of the wildest parties that Cannery Row had seen. They must have had extremely erudite tom-wallagers in Monterey...
6. "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it." Country of origin of the poet, please

Answer: Persia

From Edward FitzGerald's First Edition translation of the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". A 12th-century Persian poet, philosopher, scientist and tent-maker, Khayyam's philosophy seems to be largely along the lines of "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." No problems with that, Omar!
7. "The winter! the brightness that blinds you, The white land locked tight as a drum, The cold fear that follows and finds you, The silence that bludgeons you dumb. The snows that are older than history, The woods where the weird shadows slant; The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery, I've bade 'em good-by -- but I can't." To what country is the poet referring?

Answer: Canada

A little more obscure, this one. It comes from "The Spell of the Yukon" by Robert Service.

Robert Service was a Scot who fell in love with the North of Canada, and much of his poetry reflects this; he is sometimes called "The Kipling of The North".
8. "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour;" Of which country's spring is the poet writing?

Answer: England

After the Norman conquest in 1066, most "English" literature was written in either French or Latin. Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", written in the 14th century, was probably the first well-known work to be written in English (well, Middle English, at least!)

There are thirty pilgrims travelling to Canterbury. To pass the time, the innkeeper suggests that each pilgrim tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, then two more on the way back. Chaucer uses this device to weave together a number of disparate short stories, which range in style and taste from chivalric and courtly to downright bawdy. The tales expose certain aspects of various professions or vocations which Chaucer felt were rotten or corrupt at the time.

The lines above are the opening lines of the General Prologue to the Tales, in which Chaucer sets the scene and introduces his characters.
9. "By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my 'satiable curiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!' Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.'" In which African country or countries is the Limpopo River?

Answer: All of these

From "How the Elephant Got Its Trunk", one of the "Just-So Stories" of Rudyard Kipling.

From the clues given, it could be any of the 4 countries. The Limpopo either borders or runs through all of them. The wait-a-bit thorn (so called, because if you get entangled in it, you ain't going anywhere!) is endemic all over Southern Africa.

As for crocodiles, the Limpopo rises in South Africa, where it is known as the Krokodil River, and gets worse as it makes its way to its mouth on the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. The Limpopo forms the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe and the African version of the "wetbacks", fleeing Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe across the river to South Africa, would grimly be able to tell the Elephant's Child what the Crocodile has for dinner: they are not known as the "river sentries" for nothing.
10. "When I was a young man I carried me pack And I lived the free life of the rover From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback I waltzed my Matilda all over" In which country did the young man live?

Answer: Australia

Another excellent Eric Bogle anti-war song. It describes the Gallipoli landings in WWI, and how the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) were cut to ribbons by Turkish forces as they landed on the heavily-defended coast.

"How well I remember that terrible day,
When our blood stained the sand and the water,
And how in that Hell they called Suvla Bay,
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter."

ANZAC Day (April 25th) remains of special significance in both Australia and New Zealand. The campaign also has much significance for Turks - General Kemal, commander of the Turkish forces at Gallipoli, subsequently became known and revered by his people as Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern state of Turkey.

Although British, French, New Zealand, Indian and Turkish troops all fought at Gallipoli, the clues to the nationality of this particular young soldier are given in the last two lines of the quotation.
Source: Author frankmcvey

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LilahDeDah before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
1. Tricky Geography Stumpers Difficult
2. Extreme Geography Difficult
3. World Facts and Figures Very Difficult
4. Geographical Allsorts Difficult
5. Largest Country By Area Difficult
6. The Geography Game Tough
7. Relatively Speaking Very Difficult
8. Geography Quiz Difficult
9. Geography Genii Difficult
10. Minorities in Different Countries Difficult
11. Try Beating THIS Geography Quiz! Very Difficult
12. Global Bazaar Very Difficult

3/28/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us