To What End? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alexandrine

"Alexandrine" can refer to any line of 12 syllables, but iambic pentameter is so common in English poetry that an Alexandrine generally refers to a line of six iambs in English. It doesn't necessarily occur at the end of a poem, though it always does in the Spencerian stanza, which has eight lines of iambic pentameter followed by an Alexandrine.

The exact origin of the name is lost, but probably goes back to the 12th century.

Answer: Couplet

The first twelve lines of a Shakespearian sonnet introduce a problem or idea. Each set of four lines is its own rhyming quatrain. The final rhyming couplet resolves or sums up all that came before.

Answer: Volta

A volta can occur in any form of poetry and is a dramatic shift in direction. It's most famous in sonnets, however, because of their usual form of setting up a theme or situation or problem in the first section, then resolving or commenting on that theme in the conclusion.

Answer: A rhyme

Blank verse has a recognizable meter, usually iambic pentameter, but it has no rhyme at the end of each line. Though probably most famous as the form of Shakespeare's plays, it has long been popular in English poetry, used by Christopher Marlowe in the 16th century and Robert Frost in the 20th century.

Answer: One accented syllable

An anapest consists of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one. It's much less common than an iamb in English poetry, but it produces a quick rhythm. One famous example is "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron: "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold / And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold."

Answer: They are lines repeated three times earlier in the poem

The villanelle consists of a pattern of closely repeating lines, with the two refrain lines at the end occuring also as the first and third line of the poem, and again two more times before appearing together as a couplet at the end. By far the most famous villanelle is Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night," with its refrains: "Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Answer: Three previous end words

Though there are many variations of the sestina, the classic form includes a tight and complex repetition of words at the end of lines throughout the first 36 lines. The final three lines reuse important words from throughout the poem, emphasizing them in a rhythmic fashion that sounds different from usual English poems which end with rhyming words.

The tornada includes at least three end words from the previous three lines, and in the sestina's most classic form, the tornada also includes three more earlier end words in the middle of the tornada's lines.

Answer: From the ninth line of the poem

The haunting short line "In Flanders fields" breaks the rhythm twice in the poem, as required by the rondeau form that McCrae was using. It appears first as a comforting message from the dead killed in war: "Loved and were loved, and now we lie / In Flanders fields." But at the end, it becomes a warning to the living, if they do not continue to fight for the cause of the dead: "We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields."

Answer: The first two lines

The limerick is usually of the rhyme scheme aabba. Edward Lear, who popularized the nonsense poem in the 19th century, sometimes repeated the first rhyming word exactly in the final line, but the modern limerick generally follows the normal rhyme scheme, often using clever or bawdy variations of words to force rhymes for the sake of humor.

The name is probably a reference to the place name Limerick in Ireland and became attached to the form in the late 19th century.

Answer: Five syllables, same as the first line

The English-language haiku has developed as its own poetic form, adapted in the 20th century from translations of Japanese haiku. It consists of three unrhyming lines of five, seven, and five syllables, and may include an unusual or thought-provoking observation about the natural world, though there are many variations.