Poet's Corner Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was a British late-Victorian poet and writer. Born in Mumbai (then called Bombay), his works include "The Jungle Book" published in 1894 and "Just So Stories" (1902). In 1907 Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

His 1892 poem "Gunga Din" was made into a 1939 film. My personal favorite Kipling poem is "If", written in 1895 as paternal advice to a son. "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you/If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too...you'll be a man, my son."

Answer: Ogden Nash

Frederic Ogden Nash (1902-1971), an American poet, is one of my favorites -
brief and funny! The New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry." To wit (good pun, no?): "A Word to Husbands"
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.

Answer: Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Allan Silverstein (1930-1999) was a poet, song-writer, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children's books. He started out as a cartoonist but was really the 'Renaissance man' of words. Silverstein went on to create wonderful children's books like "The Giving Tree" (1964), "A Light in the Attic" (1981) and "Falling Up" (1996).

He wrote the "Unicorn Song" for the Irish Rovers, and "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash, and he collaborated with David Mamet on the 1988 screenplay "Things Change". "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1974) deals with kids' fears and concerns in a serio-comic way which can be appreciated by adults too.

Answer: Emily Dickinson

I would be remiss if I did not include something from "The Belle of Amherst", Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). She lived a solitary life, yet said so much about humanity in her poetry. She remains one of America's greatest and most original poets, despite the fact that she never experienced success while she was still alive. Death and dying were among her favorite subjects, as seen in the 1867 lyrical poem "Because I could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for me", ironically published posthumously in 1890.

Answer: William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a British poet who, along with Coleridge, helped set in motion the Romantic Age in English literature with the publication of "Lyrical Ballads" in 1798; the collection contained "Tintern Abbey". He displayed his love for nature in "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud/That floats on high o'er vales and hills/When all at once I saw a crowd,/A host, of golden daffodils". Wordsworth became England's poet laureate in 1843, a post he held until his death.

Answer: Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914-1953) was a Welsh poet and writer. He is known for his play "Under Milk Wood", which was performed as a radio drama in 1954; it was about a day in the life of a small Welsh fishing village called "Llareggub" (to be read backwards).

It was also made into a frightful 1972 film with Taylor and Burton. "Do not go gentle into that good night...rage, rage against the dying of the light", was written as a villanelle (look it up, I did), a plea to his dying father, and published in 1951. Thomas was also known as a heavy drinker and died prematurely at the age of 39.

Answer: Langston Hughes

Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was a poet, columnist, playwright, novelist and social activist. He was also one of the innovators of jazz poetry, and the leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. His ancestry consisted of slaves, slave owners and native Americans.

In 1935 Hughes wrote the poem "Let America Be American Again", a poem which still rings true to this day and bears repetition. "Let America be America again/Let it be the dream it used to be/Let it be the pioneer on the plain/Seeking a home where he himself is free."

Answer: Maya Angelou

Born Marguerite Annie Johnson, Maya Angelou (1928-2014) is the true Renaissance woman: poet, memoirist, author, playwright, actor, director, civil rights activist. Her resume includes seven autobiographies, three books of essays, poetry books, plays, TV shows and movies, all of which span half a century.

Her first book was "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" in 1969. Her awards are too numerous to mention, but I will include a brief extract from "Still I Rise" to show the beauty and strength of this woman. "You may write me down in history/With your bitter twisted lies/You may tread me in the very dirt/but still, like dust/I'll rise."

Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

British poet, literary critic and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a co-founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake poets. In 1798 he co-wrote "Lyrical Ballads" along with Wordsworth. He also penned "Kubla Khan, Or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" in 1797, perhaps while under the influence of opium. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is actually a cautionary tale where an old mariner stops a wedding guest to tell his story of a disastrous sea journey.

There was this bad storm, an albatross to help guide them through, his killing of the albatross, and "Water, water everywhere/Nor any drop to drink".

Answer: Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) was actually born in San Francisco, California, but his poems were first published In England. Frost is renowned for his depictions of rural life and, in 1961, he was named Poet Laureate of Vermont. I was going to use his poem "The Road Not Taken", but I thought too many people had already traveled there, so I went with the lyrical "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" written in 1922, because it paints such a lovely picture. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep".