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Write for T.S. Eliot Trivia Quiz

Hated your Literature class? Well, get ready to be tested on T.S. Eliot's poems and plays, and see if you could write as well as he did!

A multiple-choice quiz by AlexT781. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
AlexT781

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
363,403

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
307

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. From "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

"Let us go then you and I
When the evening is spread out across the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;"

What is the next line? Hint

From a common fable

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets

Shall these bones live?

Or some oft-used label

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. From "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service":

"Polyphiloprogenitive
The sapient sutlers of the Lord
Drift across the window-panes."

What is the next line? Hint

In the beginning was the Word

Following the star bright in the sky

The setting suns cast shadows

Giving alms to the weary

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. From "Ash Wednesday"

"Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken
Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew"

What is the next line? Hint

"Still is the unspoken word"

"The unread vision in the higher dream"

"And the light shone in the darkness"

"And after this our exile"

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. From "Sweeney Among the Nightingales":

"The host with someone indistinct
Converses at the door apart,
The nightingales are singing near"

What is the next line? Hint

She and the lady in the cape

And let there liquid siftings fall

The Convent of the Sacred Heart

Bananas figs and hothouse grapes

5. From "The Hollow Men":

"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends"

What is the next line? Hint: No hint for this one because it's one of his more famous passages. Hint

Shape without form, shade without colour

The Horror. The Horror.

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. From "The Waste Land":

"Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."

This time, choose the first line of the stanza. This is another fairly famous line, so I won't give a hint. Hint

In the waste land, growing

My child do you see, fleeting

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Grasslands turn green, letting

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. From "The Waste Land":

"Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of the gulls, and the deep sea swell"

What is the next line? Hint: don't forget "The Waste Land" is made up of several parts. The answer isn't found in Part I. Hint

And the profit and loss.

Of war and misery

Creaking ropes and crack of sails.

Charted a course to Kerberos

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. Let's change things up a little. Whose murder is central to T.S. Eliot's play "Murder in the Cathedral"? Hint

King Henry II

Archbishop Thomas Becket

Grand Inquisitor Tom�s de Torquemada

Eliot never tells us the victim's name

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. From "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

"Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?...
I should have been a pair of ragged claws"

What is the next line in the stanza? Hint

Let us go and make our visit.

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

I grow old...I grow old...

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. This question is a little different than the others. In the poem "Sweeney Among the Nightingales" there is a sentence written in Greek. What is the correct English translation? Hint

"By what name shall I call thee?"

"About these things I am sure you agree."

"Alas, I am struck a mortal blow from within."

"I am not Russian at all."

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. From "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "Let us go then you and I When the evening is spread out across the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table;" What is the next line?

Answer: Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" first appeared in 1915 in the magazine "Poetry". It has many recognizable verses, and is one of the more famous poems of the 20th Century.

"Shall these bones live?" is a line from Eliot's "Ash Wednesday", published in 1930.

2. From "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service": "Polyphiloprogenitive The sapient sutlers of the Lord Drift across the window-panes." What is the next line?

Answer: In the beginning was the Word

"Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service" was published in Eliot's 1920 "Poems". Other well-known poems published in this work are "The Hippopotamus" and "Sweeney Among the Nightingales".

3. From "Ash Wednesday" "Redeem the time, redeem the dream The token of the word unheard, unspoken Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew" What is the next line?

Answer: "And after this our exile"

"Ash Wednesday" was published in 1930, after Eliot became a British citizen and joined the Anglican Church. It incorporates Biblical themes and characters, Communion rites, and prayers.

4. From "Sweeney Among the Nightingales": "The host with someone indistinct Converses at the door apart, The nightingales are singing near" What is the next line?

Answer: The Convent of the Sacred Heart

"Sweeney Among the Nightingales" appeared in Eliot's 1920 "Poems". The brutish character Sweeney is generally regarded as the embodiment of the Modernist idea that modern man is vulgar and cruel (the comparison with King Agamemnon) as opposed to the Romantic notions of being heroic and valorous.

5. From "The Hollow Men": "This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends" What is the next line? Hint: No hint for this one because it's one of his more famous passages.

Answer: Not with a bang but a whimper.

"The Hollow Men" is another one of Eliot's well-known poems. It is usually recognized as the poem Col. Kurtz recites and the photojournalist references in the movie "Apocalypse Now".

6. From "The Waste Land": "Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain." This time, choose the first line of the stanza. This is another fairly famous line, so I won't give a hint.

Answer: April is the cruellest month, breeding

"The Waste Land" was published in 1922, and is considered by many to be Eliot's masterwork.

7. From "The Waste Land": "Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of the gulls, and the deep sea swell" What is the next line? Hint: don't forget "The Waste Land" is made up of several parts. The answer isn't found in Part I.

Answer: And the profit and loss.

This stanza is found in Part IV, titled "Death By Water". This part of "The Waste Land" refers to a friend of Eliot's, Jean Verdenal, who drowned in 1915.

8. Let's change things up a little. Whose murder is central to T.S. Eliot's play "Murder in the Cathedral"?

Answer: Archbishop Thomas Becket

The play is about the murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. King Henry II is also a main character in the play, historically accused of ordering Becket to be killed. Torquemada was appointed Grand Inquisitor by the Pope during the Inquisition, and is not related to the play.

9. From "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?... I should have been a pair of ragged claws" What is the next line in the stanza?

Answer: Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

The character of Prufrock is Eliot's personalization of the frustration, anxiety, and indecisiveness of man. He is seen as pathetic rather than heroic. The poem is Eliot's Modernist rejection of the Romantic ideals.

The other lines also come from well-known verses of "Prufrock":

"Oh, do not ask, "What is it?" / Let us go and make our visit.", and "I grow old...I grow old... / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."

10. This question is a little different than the others. In the poem "Sweeney Among the Nightingales" there is a sentence written in Greek. What is the correct English translation?

Answer: "Alas, I am struck a mortal blow from within."

The opening line was taken from Aeschylus' "Agamemnon". It is Agamemnon's last words as he is murdered. The other quotes are from various other poems by T.S. Eliot.

Source: Author AlexT781

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