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W. B. throws a party Trivia Quiz

Brrrr! W.B., I do wish you would not hold soirees in this drafty tower. How many of W.B. Yeats distinguished literary guests do you recognise? You need to really know your poets for this quiz. Enjoy.

A multiple-choice quiz by Fiachra. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
Fiachra

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
148,915

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
465

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Ezra! what are you reading?
"the evening is spread out against the sky
like a patient etherised upon a table" Hint

Thomas Hardy

T.S. Eliot

Edith Sitwell

A.E. Housman

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. Who is examining the golden glow of whiskey and "rag[ing] against the dying of the light"? Hint

Edwin Muir

Osbert Sitwell

Thomas Clarke

Dylan Thomas

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. "I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God come near me".
Author please. Hint

Louis MacNeice

W.H. Auden

W.B. Yeats

Edwin Muir

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. "Arranges the rows of cans
so that they softly say:
ESSO - SO - SO - SO"
to high strung automobiles"
W.B.! who is this charming well travelled writer? Hint

Sylvia Plath

Elizabeth Bishop

Eavan Boland

Pauline Stainer

NEXT>

Question 5 of 10

5. "... They
Have slipped their names, and stand at ease".
What inspired you Philip (Larkin), to write these lines about the transience of fame? Hint

Actors

Soldiers

Horses

Sportsmen

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. I notice you examining my "hive for the honey bee". Of course, you know a lot about bees, you wrote "The Arrival of the Bee Box". Who was this poet? Hint

Sylvia Plath

Michael Longley

Fleur Adcock

Patrick Kavanagh

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. You were born in the USA and reared in Northern Ireland. You wrote the poem 'Cage' about your relationship with your father. Who is Yeats describing? Hint

Paul Durcan

Richard Wilbur

John Montague

Patrick Kavanagh

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. "If the year is meditating a suitable gift
I should like it to be the attitude
Of my great-great-grandmother".
Author please. Hint

Eavan Boland

Fleur Adcock

Sylvia Plath

Judith Wright

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. You used the sunflower as a symbol of man's ability to survive. Yeats' ninth guest was Alan who?

Answer: (Beat Poet 8 letters)

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. Yeats' final guest is his friend Archibald MacLeish. Complete this line from MacLeish's poem;
"A poem should not ....
But be."

Answer: (4 letters)

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Ezra! what are you reading? "the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table"

Answer: T.S. Eliot

The lines come from 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock'. Ezra Pound was a friend of both Yeats and Eliot. He helped Eliot find a publisher for his works.

2. Who is examining the golden glow of whiskey and "rag[ing] against the dying of the light"?

Answer: Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas, alas, had a fondness for drink which contributed to his early death. The lines come from 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight', where he encourages his father to defy death as long as possible, and struggle on in spite of old age. Dylan also wrote the incredible play for voices 'Under Milk Wood'.

3. "I am not yet born; O hear me, Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God come near me". Author please.

Answer: Louis MacNeice

These lines come from the chilling poem 'A Prayer Before Birth'. The poet speaks as an unborn child. He paints a nightmare view of the world except in one delightful verse, where he asks for 'water to dandle me' 'grass to grow for me' and 'a white light' to guide me.

4. "Arranges the rows of cans so that they softly say: ESSO - SO - SO - SO" to high strung automobiles" W.B.! who is this charming well travelled writer?

Answer: Elizabeth Bishop

These lines come from 'Filling Station', a delightful little poem. Bishop had stopped for gas and at first dismissed the place because of its dirt. On closer observation, she changed her mind, as she recognised the efforts some unseen person was making. Her message is simple, first impressions do not tell the whole story.

5. "... They Have slipped their names, and stand at ease". What inspired you Philip (Larkin), to write these lines about the transience of fame?

Answer: Horses

In this poem,'At Grass', Philip Larkin, cleverly and elegantly uses two once famous and 'almanacked' horses to discuss the short lived nature of fame.

6. I notice you examining my "hive for the honey bee". Of course, you know a lot about bees, you wrote "The Arrival of the Bee Box". Who was this poet?

Answer: Sylvia Plath

"White as a knuckle and terribly upset
it drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet
with the o-gape of despair."
Every time I read this description of the moon, I see Sylvia Plath in the painting 'The Scream'. Her vision is of anguish and pain but written with clarity and passion.

7. You were born in the USA and reared in Northern Ireland. You wrote the poem 'Cage' about your relationship with your father. Who is Yeats describing?

Answer: John Montague

'The Cage' in the title is one of the kiosks selling tickets for the NY subway. Montague's father, (a countryman at heart), worked there, while his son was raised in Ulster. The poem explores the father/son relationship.

8. "If the year is meditating a suitable gift I should like it to be the attitude Of my great-great-grandmother". Author please.

Answer: Judith Wright

Judith Wright is a wonderfully refreshing Australian writer. She won the Robert Frost Medallion in 1976.

9. You used the sunflower as a symbol of man's ability to survive. Yeats' ninth guest was Alan who?

Answer: Ginsberg

Yeats is referring here to 'Sunflower Sutra'. Ginsberg used a grey sunflower growing in a filthy railway siding as a symbol of man's ability to survive in a hostile environment.

10. Yeats' final guest is his friend Archibald MacLeish. Complete this line from MacLeish's poem; "A poem should not .... But be."

Answer: Mean

This quote comes from "Ars Poetica". Poetry really is a private experience.
Goodnight W.B. and thank you.

Source: Author Fiachra

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
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