FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about More or Less Basic French Poetry
Quiz about More or Less Basic French Poetry

(More or Less) Basic French Poetry Quiz


I hope you will enjoy and learn things with this quiz about French poetry!

A multiple-choice quiz by Quiterie. Estimated time: 5 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Literature Trivia
  6. »
  7. Literature by Region
  8. »
  9. French Literature

Author
Quiterie
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
267,931
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
810
Last 3 plays: Guest 49 (7/10), Guest 103 (5/10), Guest 182 (8/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. What was the name of the politician Victor Hugo supported at first, but against whom he later wrote a collection of poems?

Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Finish the famous sentence "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne..." :

Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. "Demain, dès l'aube, à l'heure où blanchit la campagne, je partirai. (...) Et quand j'arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur."
This is the beginning and the end of a very famous poem, learned at school by almost every little child, which was written by a father who had lost his beloved daughter. Who is this man?
Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. "La cigale et la fourmi" (the cicada and the ant), "Le loup et l'agneau" (the wolf and the lamb), "Le chêne et le roseau" (the oak and the reed), "Le chat, la belette et le petit lapin" (the cat, the weasel and the little rabbit)...
One could name a lot of these particular poems, written during the 17th century by a man who knew many of the great characters of his time. I will not give you the name of the writer, it would be too easy, but can you give me what is the literary form of this kind of poem ?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Charles Baudelaire, a nineteenth century poet, translated into French certain English works.


Question 6 of 10
6. Pierre de Ronsard is one of the most famous poets of the Renaissance period. He was inspired by three women, Cassandre, Hélène and Marie. To each one he wrote a collection of poems, which bore their name. Which poetic form did Ronsard often use in these works?

Hint : It is the title of the collection of poems dedicated to one of the women.
Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. "La rose et le réséda" (the rose and the reseda), "Les fusillés de Châteaubriant" (the men shot in Châteaubriant), "Strophes pour se souvenir" (Stanzas to remember), "Liberté" (liberty)...
All these poems were written by different people, but with the same purpose. Can you tell me what movement these works belong to?
Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) changed many things and broke new grounds in poetry. What did he do, among other things? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. What is the name of a certain state of mind, which came from England and greatly influenced the 19th century poets? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. In France, from the Middle-Age, almost every century or period has its own kind or style of poetry. However there was one century during which there were almost no poetic works. Which one?

Hint : this century has a nickname!
Hint



(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 20 2024 : Guest 49: 7/10
Mar 20 2024 : Guest 103: 5/10
Mar 19 2024 : Guest 182: 8/10
Mar 19 2024 : Guest 103: 6/10
Mar 15 2024 : Guest 103: 4/10
Mar 14 2024 : Guest 152: 5/10
Mar 10 2024 : Guest 104: 8/10
Feb 16 2024 : Guest 106: 7/10
Feb 08 2024 : Guest 83: 4/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. What was the name of the politician Victor Hugo supported at first, but against whom he later wrote a collection of poems?

Answer: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoléon III)

Victor Hugo was a deputy of the 2nd Republic in 1848. He supported the president Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. When the latter nominated himself "emperor" (he became Napoleon III), Hugo didn't appreciate this change of regime (which wasn't very democratic...). He went to live in exile and began his campaign against the emperor.
His collection of poems "Les Châtiments" (the punishments), which targeted the 2nd Empire, was written during his exile.
2. Finish the famous sentence "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne..." :

Answer: blessent mon coeur d'une langueur monotone.

"Les sanglots longs / des violons / de l'automne / blessent mon coeur / d'une langueur / monotone." This is the first stanza of the poem "Chanson d'automne" from "Poèmes saturniens", written by Paul Verlaine (19th century).
I suppose you have immediately recognized the code sentence used during WWII, to inform the Resistance of the imminence of the Normandy landings ("Débarquement") and the beginning of the operations.
3. "Demain, dès l'aube, à l'heure où blanchit la campagne, je partirai. (...) Et quand j'arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur." This is the beginning and the end of a very famous poem, learned at school by almost every little child, which was written by a father who had lost his beloved daughter. Who is this man?

Answer: Victor Hugo

"Demain dès l'aube", from "Les contemplations", was written by Victor Hugo on the third of September 1847, the day before the fourth anniversary of the death of his daughter Léopoldine. She drowned in the Seine, in Normandy, along with her husband and two other relatives, during a journey on their little boat. This death, which occurred just a few months after Léopoldine's marriage (and she was only 19), had a great impact on the personality and works of Victor Hugo.

Apollinaire is a 20th century poet. He is most famous for his calligrams.
Laforgue and Rimbaud lived during the 19th century. Both died young and were disappointed by life; some of their poetic theories were close.
4. "La cigale et la fourmi" (the cicada and the ant), "Le loup et l'agneau" (the wolf and the lamb), "Le chêne et le roseau" (the oak and the reed), "Le chat, la belette et le petit lapin" (the cat, the weasel and the little rabbit)... One could name a lot of these particular poems, written during the 17th century by a man who knew many of the great characters of his time. I will not give you the name of the writer, it would be too easy, but can you give me what is the literary form of this kind of poem ?

Answer: fable

Jean de La Fontaine is indeed most famous for his "Fables" (and we can say that the most famous fables are La Fontaine's). I hope you weren't tricked by "apologue" : La Fontaine's fables are apologues, but they are also poems whereas an apologue can be a novel.
A fable is a (short) poem, not always with rhymes. It is a simple story with a moral, often given at the end. The characters are simple and impersonate a rank in society, a job, a personality...
La Fontaine often used this mean to criticize King Louis XIV's politics or the French society.
5. Charles Baudelaire, a nineteenth century poet, translated into French certain English works.

Answer: True

Charles Baudelaire translated works by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, like his "Extraordinary Stories" and "New Extraordinary Stories". His translations are still the ones read today.
6. Pierre de Ronsard is one of the most famous poets of the Renaissance period. He was inspired by three women, Cassandre, Hélène and Marie. To each one he wrote a collection of poems, which bore their name. Which poetic form did Ronsard often use in these works? Hint : It is the title of the collection of poems dedicated to one of the women.

Answer: sonnet

A sonnet is a poem with 2 quatrains (stanza with 4 verse) and 2 tercets (stanza with 3 verse) and a specific arrangement of rhymes.
Ronsard wrote "Sonnets pour Hélène", "Amours de Marie" (loves of Marie) and "Amours de Cassandre".
Ronsard was a chief of the literary movement "La Pléïade". Their poetry, like most of the Renaissance's, was lyric (poetry of the feelings, mainly love). The following literary movement, classicism, was totally opposed to this, and the lyric poetry disappeared for a while before being later rediscovered by the Romantics.
7. "La rose et le réséda" (the rose and the reseda), "Les fusillés de Châteaubriant" (the men shot in Châteaubriant), "Strophes pour se souvenir" (Stanzas to remember), "Liberté" (liberty)... All these poems were written by different people, but with the same purpose. Can you tell me what movement these works belong to?

Answer: Poésie de la Résistance (Resistance poetry)

All these poems were written during or after World War II, as a reaction to the Nazi regime and its wrongdoing (like summary executions)...

"La rose et le réséda", by Louis Aragon (1944)
"Strophes pour se souvenir", by Louis Aragon (1954)
"Les fusillés de Châteaubriant", by René-Guy Cadou (1946)
"Liberté", by Paul Eluard (1942)

The "everyday poetry" (poésie du quotidien) is a movement of the 20th century. Thanks to poetry, everyday and normal objects (like bread) are transformed into extraordinary things.
"Preciousness" (préciosité) is a 17th century movement (not only poetic; it also included the way of life...) with mostly rich and high-ranked women. They not only wrote poems, but also talked in a very special way (which would sound incredibly snobbish nowadays !) to be distinct from the "People". They were very learned and cultured, and often met in "salons" to discuss.
The symbolist poets (19th century) thought that they had to decode the world, find correspondences between things, sounds, colors, etc. in order to reach another, better world, thanks to poetry. Their poetry is very hermetic and the authors thought they were like gods, creating a new world.
8. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) changed many things and broke new grounds in poetry. What did he do, among other things?

Answer: He was the first to write about evil and "dirty" things

Indeed, the poetic conventions forbade to write poems about death, corpses, lust, homosexuality between women... but Charles Baudelaire wrote about all these and even more! His most famous collection of poems is called "Les fleurs du mal" (The flowers of evil). Imagine the stir it caused in society when it came out! But, since there wasn't a taboo anymore, many poets followed suit.

He didn't invent a new form of poem, and his poetry wasn't only aesthetic, although some of it was. On the contrary, he was a precursor to the symbolists and believed (maybe even invented) the Correspondence theory (poets can reach a new world thanks to poetry). However, the "poetry is only aesthetic" theory is that of Parnasse (19th century, with Th. Gautier, etc): they thought poems only had to be beautiful, with nice and beautiful references and words.
9. What is the name of a certain state of mind, which came from England and greatly influenced the 19th century poets?

Answer: spleen

The spleen is a boredom of existence, a weariness...
Baudelaire, Laforgue, Rimbaud, etc. were among the most affected poets. Some of their poems describe their state of mind: a cage, rain, dirt, rats, a black world, illness...
10. In France, from the Middle-Age, almost every century or period has its own kind or style of poetry. However there was one century during which there were almost no poetic works. Which one? Hint : this century has a nickname!

Answer: XVIIIe (18th century)

The eighteenth century is most renown for its works and progress in politics, philosophy, science... That's why it's called "Enlightenment" ("siècle des Lumières" in French). Since poetry is not very useful to prove, demonstrate, or explain things, authors preferred other literary means (essays and apologues mostly) to explain and expose their ideas. Hence poetry was scarcely used and didn't change.

However, apart from the 18th century, poetry was always present. The 19Xth and 20th are the richest in styles : romantism, Parnasse, symbolism, surrealism, everyday poetry, Resistance poetry, and all the other poems, calligrams, works for children, and much more.
Source: Author Quiterie

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LeoDaVinci before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us