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Robinson Jeffers Trivia Quiz

Between World War I and World War II, Robinson Jeffers was generally considered to be the greatest American writer ever. Now, however, he is largely forgotten. Test your knowledge of this once-major poet and his more famous poems.

A multiple-choice quiz by NormanW5. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
NormanW5

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
218,308

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
129

This quiz has 2 formats: you can play it as a or as shown below.
Scroll down to the bottom for the answer key.

1. At the height of his popularity, Jeffers was most famous for his novel-length verse narratives. The publication of "Thurso's Landing" occasioned which major magazine to feature Jeffers on its cover? Hint

TIME

LIFE

The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Review

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2. Jeffers was loved for his beautiful descriptions of nature. The following lines open which famous poem?

"The ebb slips from the rock, the sunken
Tide-rocks lift streaming shoulders
Out of the slack, the slow west
Sombering its torch" Hint

Night

The Beauty of Things

The Carmel Coast

Roan Stallion

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3. "The Bed by the Window" is frequently included in anthologies of American poems. What about the bed made it interesting for Jeffers to write about? Hint

He had built the bed himself for Una, his new bride

The bed had been his wife's Una's bed before her death

He had chosen the bed as a good death-bed

Through the window one can see sunset on the Pacific

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4. Jeffers wrote a play retelling a story originally made famous by an earlier playwrite. Starring Judith Anderson and John Gielgud, it was a smash hit on Broadway in 1947. What was the title of that play? Hint

The Misanthrope

Murder in the Cathedral

Medea

Candide

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5. One of Jeffers' most popular subjects was love, and he wrote especially of the love he and his wife Una shared. From what subject(s) was he turning to her in the following lines?

"Tonight, dear / Let's forget _____________
And enisle ourselves a little beyond time
You with this Irish whiskey, I with red wine,
While the stars go over the sleepless ocean,
And sometime after midnight I'll pick you a wreath
Of chosen ones; we'll talk about love and death" Hint

a local evangelist they thought was a phony

one friend's suicide, and other friends' divorce

a poem he was writing but didn't like, and World War II

the loss of a local forest to loggers

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6. Jeffers hated political corruption, but he was realistic about it. Which of the following poems finds a surprising way to counsel us to just wait: political horrors won't be so bad once we're farther away from them? Hint

We Are Those People

Prescription of Painful Ends

Dear Judas

Skunks

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7. One of the reasons Jeffers lost his high reputation was that he held highly unpopular political opinions. Which quote from "Shine, Perishing Republic" shows his opinion of America between the World Wars? Hint

being taken up / like a maniac with selflove and inward conflicts

O passionately at peace you being secure will pardon / The blasphemies

splinters of glass / In the garbage dump

this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire,

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8. Jeffers' father was an important Presbyterian theologian and minister, and although Jeffers rejected his father's religion, he worked with religious ideas throughout his mature work. Which of the following poems is the only one that does NOT describe a religious position? Hint

To the Stonecutters

To My Father

The Excesses of God

Roan Stallion

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9. Jeffers' poems usually were written in an unusual style which gave him a strong, distinctive voice. Which of the below is so characteristic of Jeffers that he is known by this feature? Hint

He uses classical Latin rather than modern English meters

He uses the repetitions and cadences of powerful sermons

He writes in paragraphs rather than stanzas

He writes in unusually long lines

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10. Jeffers' last book of poetry was published after his death. Its primary subject combined his interest in religion and his interest in science. What was its title? Hint

Tamar, Roan Stallion, and Other Poems

Be Angry at the Sun

Solstice and Other Poems

The Beginning and the End, and Other Poems

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: TIME

It is extremely rare for a poet to make the cover of TIME, but Jeffers has not been the only one. Amy Lowell was the first, and T. S. Eliot was featured after him.

2. Jeffers was loved for his beautiful descriptions of nature. The following lines open which famous poem? "The ebb slips from the rock, the sunken Tide-rocks lift streaming shoulders Out of the slack, the slow west Sombering its torch"

Answer: Night

Jeffers' strong depictions of nature (and his ecological philosophy) make him a favorite with the Sierra Club to this day.

3. "The Bed by the Window" is frequently included in anthologies of American poems. What about the bed made it interesting for Jeffers to write about?

Answer: He had chosen the bed as a good death-bed

Jeffers did eventually die in the bed, just as he had planned to, but not until 30 years after he first published the poem.

Answer: Medea

Medea was Anderson's most important and well known role. At the end of her career she again took a role in Jeffers' drama, but this time she played the nurse and Zoe Caldwell played Medea.

5. One of Jeffers' most popular subjects was love, and he wrote especially of the love he and his wife Una shared. From what subject(s) was he turning to her in the following lines? "Tonight, dear / Let's forget _____________ And enisle ourselves a little beyond time You with this Irish whiskey, I with red wine, While the stars go over the sleepless ocean, And sometime after midnight I'll pick you a wreath Of chosen ones; we'll talk about love and death"

Answer: a poem he was writing but didn't like, and World War II

Jeffers doesn't mention it in this place, but he's also struggling with the fact that Una had been diagnosed with cancer and didn't have long to live.

Answer: Skunks

It isn't just that one can get so far away one cannot smell a skunk, from the right distance a skunk odor is "surprisingly pleasant." I didn't believe it until I experienced it, but it's true!

Answer: this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire,

Later in the poem, Jeffers hopes his children will "keep their distance from the thickening center."

Answer: To the Stonecutters

Jeffers was a panentheist. He did not believe in the traditional God, but he did believe that there was a God that could be seen through nature. He is not a pantheist, however, because he thinks of God as also beyond nature and a pantheist equates God and nature.

9. Jeffers' poems usually were written in an unusual style which gave him a strong, distinctive voice. Which of the below is so characteristic of Jeffers that he is known by this feature?

Answer: He writes in unusually long lines

Jeffers' long lines are responsible for the real sense of power and grandeur in his best work.

10. Jeffers' last book of poetry was published after his death. Its primary subject combined his interest in religion and his interest in science. What was its title?

Answer: The Beginning and the End, and Other Poems

Jeffers was 75 when he died in 1962, in "the bed by the window" that he had written about in his 40s. "The Beginning and the End" tells of the creation of the universe (the big bang).

Source: Author NormanW5

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