Year 8 Poetry –
Questions & Answers
Identify the following poets:
(John Keats)
(Shakespeare)
(WH Auden)
(William Blake)
(Rudyard Kipling)
(Walt Whitman)
(Edgar Allen Poe)
•
•
•
•
(Robert Frost)
Create a chronological Timeline for all the poets listed below
This Timeline will be due at the end of Week 2, Term II (Friday 18 April)
Answer the accompanying Research Questions below in full sentences
These Research Questions will be due at the end of Week 8, Term II (Friday 30
May)
Robert Herrick
1. Between what dates of history did Robert Herrick live?
(1591-1674)
2. In 1629, Robert Herrick took up a new job. What was it?
(Vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire)
3. Herrick held this job for 31 years and most of his published poems are from this
period of his life. However, Herrick lost his job in 1647. Why?
(During the Great Rebellion in 1647, he was removed from his position because of his
Royalist sympathies.)
4. One of Herrick’s more famous poems, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", is an
example of carpe diem genre. What does the Latin phrase ‘carpe diem’ actually
mean?
(‘Seize the day’)
Lord Byron
1. What was Lord Byron’s full name and between what dates of history did Lord Byron
live?
(Lord George Gordon Byron; 1788-1824)
2. What is a ‘Byronic Hero’?
(A defiant, melancholy young man, brooding on some mysterious, unforgivable event
in his past.)
3. With what physical disability was Lord Byron born?
(clubfoot)
4. How did Lord Byron die?
(He died of fever while taking part in the revolt of Greece against Turkey – he was
only 36 years of age)
5. From what poem does the following line come, “Alphonso was the name of Julia’s
lord, A man well looking for his years, and who Was neither much beloved, nor yet
abhorrd”?
(Don Juan)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. Between what dates of history did Samuel Taylor Coleridge live?
(1772-1834)
2. To what did Coleridge become addicted in his adult life?
(Opium - he was using as much as two quarts of laudanum a week)
3. Coleridge wrote a poem with the line, ‘Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to
drink’. From what poem does this line come?
(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)
4. What animal of good omen was killed by a cross-bow in the above poem?
(An albatross – it was said that the death stopped the wind from blowing the ship and
doomed the ship to hell)
Christopher Marlowe
1. Between what dates of history did Christopher Marlowe live?
(1564-1593)
2. Who was Francis Kett, how did Marlowe know him and how did Kett die?
(Francis Kett, the mystic, burnt in 1589 for heresy, was a fellow and tutor of his
college, and may have had some share in developing Marlowe's opinions in religious
matters.)
3. How did Marlowe die?
(In a tavern quarrel – this incident is used to great effect in ‘Shakespeare In Love’)
4. Marlowe wrote a very famous love poem dedicated ‘to his love’. What is the full
name of this poem?
(The passionate shepherd to his love/The passionate sheepheard to his love)
5. Another poet discussed in this quiz wrote a ‘nymph’s reply’ to the above poem. Who
was it?
(Sir Walter Raleigh)
Sir Walter Raleigh
1. Between what dates of history did Sir Walter Raleigh live?
(1552-1618)
2. What happened to Raleigh in 1585?
(He was knighted after rising rapidly in Queen Elizabeth I's favour. He was involved
in the early English colonisation of the New World in Virginia under a royal patent)
3. Why were Raleigh and his wife sent to the tower of London?
( In 1591 he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queen's ladies-inwaiting, without requesting the Queen's permission, for which he and his wife were
sent to the Tower of London.)
4. How did Raleigh die?
(Beheaded)
Alfred Lord Tennyson
1. Between what dates of history did Alfred Lord Tennyson live?
(1809-1892)
2. What lifelong fear did Tennyson have and why did he have this fear?
(He also had a lifelong fear of mental illness, for several men in his family had a
mild form of epilepsy, which was then thought a shameful disease. His father and
brother Arthur made their cases worse by excessive drinking. His brother Edward
had to be confined in a mental institution after 1833, and he himself spent a few
weeks under doctors' care in 1843. In the late twenties his father's physical and
mental condition worsened, and he became paranoid, abusive, and violent.)
3. From what poem does the following line come, “Out flew the web and floated
wide; the mirror crack’d from side to side;”?
(The Lady of Shalott)
4. From which of Tennyson’s poems comes the line, ‘For always roaming with a
hungry heart Much have I seen and known;’?
(Ulysses – Ulysses/Odysseus is the hero of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’)
William Blake
1. Between what dates of history did William Blake live?
(1757-1827)
2. What was unusual about Blake’s ‘world travels’?
(He actually did not travel. He only once travelled more than a day's walk outside
London over the course of his life)
3. While Blake never went to school, he learned five languages. Name three of them.
(French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew)
4. Where is Blake buried?
(In an unmarked grave in Bunhill Fields – although he was clear of all debt when he
died, it is believed that he was buried as a pauper)
Walt Whitman
1. Between what dates of history did Walt Whitman live?
(1819-18920
2. At what age did Whitman leave school to become a printer’s apprentice and then a
teacher?
(11 years of age)
3. In 1842 and 1846, Whitman became the Editor of two newspapers. What were the
names of these newspapers?
(The New York Aurora and the Brooklyn Eagle respectively)
4. From which of Whitman’s poems comes the line, ‘I believe a leaf of grass is no les
than the journey-work of the stars’?
(What is the grass?)
5. Whitman wrote a very famous poem called O Captain! My Captain!, used and
celebrated in the 1989 film Dead Poet’s Society. What was Whitman’s poem about?
(Whitman was rejoicing that the Civil War was drawing to a close but grieving at the
loss of President Abraham Lincoln, a beloved leader, who had been assassinated
while attending the theatre on April 14, 1865 – the whole nation was shocked into
mourning)
Robert Frost
1. Between what dates of history did Robert Frost live?
(1874-1963)
2. While Frost grew up in San Francisco and Massachusetts, his first book of poetry was
published in an entirely different country. When and where was this first book
published?
(1911, England)
3. From which of Frost’s poems comes the line, “‘Don’t let him cut my hand off – the
doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him sister!’”
(Out, Out-; It tells of a boy who accidentally cuts his hand off with a buzz saw!)
4. Frost is also famous for coining the phrase, ‘the road less travelled’. From what poem
of his did this phrase evolve?
(The road not taken)
Alfred Noyes
1. Between what dates of history did Alfred Noyes live?
(1880-1958)
2. Noyes was famous for writing what sort of poems?
(Narrative poems)
3. From which Noyes’ poem contains the line, ‘And he lay in his blood on the highway,
with the bunch of lace at his throat.’?
(The Highwayman)
4. From which Noyes’ poem contains the line, ‘It was a King that rode to hunt upon the
morn of May, And deep within the greenwood he found himself alone’?
(The Dwarf’s Tragedy)
TS Elliot
1. Between what dates of history did TS Elliot live?
(1888-1965)
2. What does the ‘TS’ in Elliot’s name stand for?
(Thomas Sterns)
3. In 1939, Elliot published a book of poetry for children, Old Possum's Book of
Practical Cats — "Old Possum" being a name Pound had bestowed upon him. After
Eliot's death, this book became the basis of a Broadway hit musical. What is this
musical called?
(Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber)
4. From which of Elliot’s poems comes the line, ‘The last twist of the knife.’?
(Rhapsody on a Windy Night)
John Keats
1. Between what dates of history did John Keats live?
(1795-1821)
2. What period of time was often referred to by scholars as the ‘Great Year’ or the
‘Living Year’ for Keats because it was the time when he was most productive?
(September 1818 to September 1819: during this period he was most productive and
wrote his most critically acclaimed works.)
3. Before Keats turned to writing poetry, he studied for some other sort of profession.
What was the profession?
(He studied medicine and qualified as an apothecary)
4. Keats wrote a number of odes. What is an ode?
(A poem meant to be sung/a lyric poem)
5. Complete the title of Keats: ‘Ode on a Grecian…’
(Ode on a Grecian Urn,)
6. How did Keats die?
(TB – it was diagnosed on late 1819 that he had the disease and so he travelled to Italy
for his health, only to die soon after arriving)
W.H Auden
1. Between what dates of history did W.H. Auden live?
(1907-1973)
2. What did the ‘W.H.’ in Auden’s name stand for?
(Wystan Hugh)
3. Auden was a cross-Atlantic poet. He was born in one country and emigrated to
another in 1939. Name the two countries.
(England – Birmingham – and America – New York)
4. What was the name of Auden’s text that became a documentary, made by the GPO
Film Unit?
(Night Mail)
5. One of his most famous poems, ‘Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks)’ was read aloud
in a film starring Hugh Grant. What was the name of this film?
(Four Weddings and a Funeral - 1994)
John Donne
1. Between what dates of history did John Donne live?
(1572-1631)
2. How many brothers and sisters did Donne have?
(He was the third of six children.)
3. Donne was secretly married in 1602. How many children were produced from this
marriage?
(12!)
4. Donne was famous for many things, including a poem which contained the line, ‘No
man is an island’. What is the name of this poem?
(For whom the bell tolls – sometimes the poem is also referred to as No man is an
island as well)
Dylan Thomas
1. Between what dates of history did Dylan Thomas live?
(1914-1953)
2. What was the occupation of Thomas’ father?
(English Teacher)
3. One of Thomas’ best known works starts with the word, ‘Under…’. Complete the title
of this work.
(Under Milk Wood)
4. In 1951, Thomas wrote a poem called, Do not go gentle into that good night. What
was this poem about?
(Thomas’ dying father)
5. How did Thomas die?
(Alcoholic poisoning – he was a big drinker)
Dorothy Parker
1. Between what dates of history did Dorothy Parker live?
(1893-1967)
2. What was the ‘Round Table’ of the Algonquin Hotel?
(The Literary group of the Roaring 20s – the leading artists of the day would meet for
tea and scandal!)
3. Did Parker even win an Oscar?
(No – she was nominated for two Academy Awards)
4. Due to Parker’s involvement in politics, she became part of the infamous ‘Hollywood
Blacklist’. What does the term, ‘Hollywood Blacklist’ mean?
(She would not be hired by anyone in Hollywood – all connections would be broken)
William Shakespeare
1. Between what dates of history did William Shakespeare live?
(1564-1616)
2. At the age of 18 Shakespeare married a woman eight years older than him. This
woman shares her name with a famous actress of today. What is her name?
(Anne Hathaway)
3. What is a sonnet?
(A sonnet is a 14 line lyric poem, where the last two lines are a concluding couplet)
4. There are considered to be four distinct play types for Shakespeare’s plays. Two types
are Tragedies and History plays. What are the other two types of plays that
Shakespeare wrote?
(Tragicomedies and Comedies)
5. How many plays and sonnets did Shakespeare write over the course of his life time?
(154 sonnets and 36 plays)
Banjo Patterson
1. Between what dates of history did Banjo Patterson live?
(1864-1941)
2. What was Banjo Patterson’s real name?
(Andrew Barton Patterson)
3. Patterson wrote a poem about a sheep thief, which has become an unofficial national
anthem for Australia. What is that ‘anthem’?
(Waltzing Matilda) 4. From what Patterson poem does the following line come, “There’s a track winding
back to an old fashioned track”?
(Road to Gunda Gai)
5. One of Patterson’s poems was made into a successful Australian film and mini-series.
This poem began, “There was movement at the station for the word had got around”.
Name the poem.
(The Man from Snowy River)
Edgar Allan Poe
1. Between what dates of history did Edgar Allan Poe live?
(1809-1849)
2. Poe was 27 years of age when he married. How old was his wife when she married
him and how did she know him?
(Virginia was 13 years old and was his cousin!)
3. How did Poe die?
(The cause of his death is unknown and has been attributed to alcohol, brain
congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other
agents)
4. Poe was known as the master of the short story and renown for his use of suspense.
One of his most famous stories started with the words, ‘The Pit and…’. Complete thi
title.
(The pit and the pendulum)
Lewis Carroll
1. Between what dates of history did Lewis Carroll live?
(1832-1898)
2. What was Carroll’s real name?
(Charles Dodgson)
3. Carroll lectured in Mathematics at Oxford University but he was considered a bad
lecturer. Why?
(He was very shy and had a stammer)
4. Carroll wrote a very famous book about a little girl and a rabbit. The sequel to this
book is considered actually to be a chess game! Name the title of both books in the
series.
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass)
5. Carroll wrote poems considered to be within the genre of ‘literary nonsense’. Name
one of these poems.
(The Hunting of the Snark; Jabberwocky)
Percy Shelley
1. Between what dates of history did Percy Shelley live?
(1792-1822)
2. Why did Shelley leave school?
(He was expelled)
3. Shelley married a woman named Mary, aged 16 at the time, as his second wife in
1814. Mary Shelley then went on to write a gothic novel about a monster creation.
Name the title of her book.
(Frankenstein)
4. Shelley wrote a famous poem about Ramases II, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Name that
poem.
(Ozymandias)
5. How die Shelley die?
(In a sailing accident – he drowned)
Ted Hughes
1. Between what dates of history did Ted Hughes live?
(1930-1998)
2. Hughes married another famous poet from 1956-1963, who killed herself at the age of
30. Who was she?
(Sylvia Plath - his part in the relationship became controversial, to some feminists
and particularly US admirers of Plath, who even accused him of murder!)
3. In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote classical opera librettos and children's books. One
of these books was written to comfort his children after his wife’s suicide. This book
later became the basis of a Pete Townshend's rock opera and an animated film, The
Iron Giant. Name the title of the original book.
(The Iron Man)
4. From what Hughes poem does the following line come, ‘The window is starless still;
the clock ticks, the page is printed.’?
(The Thought-Fox)
Rudyard Kipling
1. Between what dates of history did Rudyard Kipling live?
(1865-1936)
2. In 1894, Kipling wrote a children’s book that was made into a Disney animated
feature musical, with such songs as ‘The Bare Necessities’. What was the title of the
book?
(The Jungle Book. He wrote The Second Jungle Book in 1895)
3. Kipling also wrote a poem about three soldiers in 19th century India who put down a
native uprising with the help of an Indian water carrier. This story was made into a
‘classic’ film starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr in 1939. What was the
name of the poem and the film?
(Gunga Din)
4. In 1907. Kipling was awarded a particular prize which made him the first English
language writer to receive it as well as the youngest-ever recipient. What was the
prize?
(He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature) 5. Amongst other honours, Kipling was also approached for the British Poet
Laureateship and a knighthood. How did he respond to such honours?
(He rejected these honours – on more than one occasion)
Edward Lear
1. Between what dates of history did Edward Lear live?
(1812-1888)
2. From what ‘nonsense work’ of Lear’s does the following line come, ‘They dined on
mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon;’?
(The Owl and the Pussycat)
3. From the poem above, Lear invented the nonsense term, ‘runcible spoon’ which has
now been included as a recognised English term in most dictionaries. What is the
dictionary definition of a ‘runcible spoon’?
(A fork curved like a spoon, with three broad prongs, one edged)
4. Lear wrote the following five-line poem:
“There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!Two Owls and a Hen
Four Larks and a Wren
Have all built their nests in my beard.’”
What is this type of poem called?
(Limerick)
Spike Milligan
1. Between what dates of history did Spike Milligan live?
(1918-2002)
2. What was Spike Milligan’s real name?
(Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan)
3. Milligan wrote, and appeared in, a very successful radio show with Peter Sellers and
Harry Secombe. This show went on to inspire many comedians, including Monty
Python. What was the name of the show?
(The Goon Show) 4. When Milligan died, what words did he ask to have as his epitaph?
(‘I told you I was ill.’)
5. From which of Milligan’s poems comes the lines, ‘There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping! And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.’?
(On the Ning Nang Nong)
A. A. Milne
1. Between what dates of history did A.A. Milne live?
(1882-1956)
2. What did the ‘A.A.’ in Milne’s name stand for?
(Alan Alexander)
3. Milne is probably best known for his books about his son, his son’s teddy bear and
various other characters inspired by his son's stuffed animals. What was the name of
the son and the teddy bear?
(Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh)
4. Milne also wrote plays and a detective story in 1922. What was the title of this
detective story?
(The Red House Mystery)
5. From which of Milne’s poems comes the line, ‘When I was One,
I had just begun.’?
(Now we are six)
Dorothy McKellar
1. Between what dates of history did Dorothy McKellar live?
(!885-1968)
2. McKellar is probably best known for a poem she wrote about Australia, which
contains the line, ‘Her beauty and her terror, the wide brown land for me’. What is the
title of this poem?
(My Country, - she wrote the poem at the age of 19)
3. Why did she write the above poem?
(She was homesick in England)
4. What happened in 1968, two weeks before McKellar’s death?
(She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to
Australian literature)
Oscar Wilde
1. Between what dates of history did Oscar Wilde live?
(1854-1900)
2. What was Wilde’s full name?
(Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde)
3. Wilde wrote a famous Victorian Era comedy of manners, which was first made into a
film version in 1952 with Michael Redgrave and Margaret Rutherford; then remade in
2002 with Colin First and Reese Witherspoon. What is the name of the comedy?
(The Importance of Being Earnest)
4. Wilde also wrote a novel about a portrait which ages while the owner of the painting
stays eternally young. What was the name of this novel, which was also made into a
film in 1945?
(The Picture of Dorian Gray)
5. Wilde was imprisoned from 1895-1897. Why was he sent to jail?
(For ‘homosexual practices’)
Judith Wright
1. Between what dates of history did Judith Wright live?
(1915-2000)
2. Wright was known to be campaigner in support of certain causes. Name one cause she
supported.
(Generally, she was an environmentalist - Wright was well known for her
environmentalist campaigning in support of the conservation of the Great Barrier Reef
and Fraser Island – and with some friends, she helped found one of the earliest nature
conservation movements. She was also an impassioned advocate for the Aboriginal
land rights movement.)
3. From what Wright poem does the following line come, ‘I woke and saw the dark
small trees that burn suddenly into flowers more lovely than the white moon.’?
(Train Journey)
4. With Love and Fury was Wright’s posthumous collection of selected letters published
in 2007. What does the word ‘Posthumous’ mean?
(Published or occurring after an author’s death)
WB Yeats
1. Between what dates of history did WB Yeats live?
(1865-1939)
2. What does the ‘W.B.’ in Yeats name stand for?
(William Butler)
3. In 1913, Yeats met a young American poet with the initials, ‘E.P.’. What was the
poet’s name?
(Ezra Pound - Pound had travelled to London at least partly to meet the older man,
whom he considered "the only poet worthy of serious study." From that year until
1916, the two men wintered in the Stone Cottage at Ashdown Forest, with Pound
nominally acting as Yeats' secretary.)
4. What award did Yeats receive in 1923?
(The Nobel Prize for Literature)
5. Yeats helped to establish an Irish national theatre. What was this theatre called?
(The Abbey Theatre)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1. Between what dates of history did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow live?
(1807-1882)
2. Longfellow was one of the five group members going by a name that had the initials,
‘F.P.’ What do these initials stand for?
(Fireside Poets)
3. From what Longfellow poem does the following line come, ‘A whisper and then a
silence, Yet I know their merry eyes, they are plotting and planning together To take
me by surprise.’?
(The Children’s Hour)
4. From what Longfellow narrative poem does the following line come, ‘Should you ask
me, whence these stories?’
(The Song of Hiawatha)
Robert Burns
1. Between what dates of history did Robert Burns live?
(1759-1796)
2. Robert Burns wrote a very famous song that is sung by everyone around the world at
a certain time of year. What is the name of the song and for what time of year is the
song sung?
( Auld Lang Syne is sung at New Year)
3. Through his talent and body of work, Burns influenced three poets discussed on this
worksheet. Who were they?
(William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Shelley)
4. From what poem of Burns’ does this line come, ‘How pleasant thy banks and green
valleys below, Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow;’?
(Afton Water)
William Wordsworth
1. Between what dates of history did William Wordsworth live?
(1770-1850)
2. With what other poet discussed on this worksheet did Wordsworth collaborate and
write the "Lyrical Ballads"
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
3. In what film, made in 2000, were these “Lyrical Ballads” discussed further?
(Pandaemonium.)
4. Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of what?
(Nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent
most of his mature life.)
5. Wordsworth wrote a very famous poem as one of the ‘Lake Poets’. What is the title of
this poem, which contains the line, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’?
(Daffodils)
Thomas Moore
1. Between what dates of history did Thomas Moore live?
(1779-1852)
2. From 1807-1834, Moore wrote a collection of songs, as he was a good musician.
What was this collection called?
(Irish Melodies – They appeared in ten parts)
3. Moore was friends with two other poets discussed here in this quiz. Who were they?
(Lord Byron and Percy Shelley)
4. Moore personal life was tragic – especially regarding his family. How many children
did he have and what happened to them?
(Moore saw the untimely deaths of all of his five children within his lifetime)
5. From which of Moore’s poems comes the line, ‘Long and moving our life shall be
And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree, When the footstep of death is near.’?
(The Lake of the Dismal Swamp)