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Which Roman writer is honoured by Alfred Tennyson in a poem which ends with these lines: "I salute thee, Mantovano, / I that loved thee since my day began, / Wielder of the stateliest measure / ever moulded by the lips of man"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
160 times |
| Correct: |
60 times (23.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
100 times (39.8%) |
| Skipped: |
91 times (36.3%) |
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In Publius Vergilius Maro's The Aeneid, from what defeated city does Aeneas flee?
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| Answered: |
1417 times |
| Correct: |
911 times (43.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
506 times (24.0%) |
| Skipped: |
694 times (32.9%) |
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When was The Aeneid by Virgil written?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
251 times |
| Correct: |
158 times (41.4%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
93 times (24.3%) |
| Skipped: |
131 times (34.3%) |
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"Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,
With his three gullets like a dog is barking
Over the people that are there submerged.
Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,
And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;
He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.
(...)
When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!
His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;
Not a limb had he that was motionless.
And my Conductor, with his spans extended,
Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled,
He threw it into those rapacious gullets."
Who wrote this?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
221 times |
| Correct: |
132 times (43.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
89 times (29.4%) |
| Skipped: |
82 times (27.1%) |
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In Publius Vergilius Maro's (Vergil's) Aeneid, after the end of the Trojan War Aeneas learns that for Troy's demise, "not Helen's face, nor Paris, was in fault; but by the gods was this destruction brought" (i.e., the gods themselves incited the war). From whom does Aeneas learn this, and how are they related?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
186 times |
| Correct: |
82 times (27.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
104 times (34.4%) |
| Skipped: |
116 times (38.4%) |
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"Let lie ... the love we seek not is no love ...
This ruined body! Is the fall thereof
Too deep for all that now is over me
Of anguish, and hath been, and yet shall be?
Ye Gods ... Alas! Why call on things so weak
For aid? Yet there is something that doth seek,
Crying, for God, when one of us hath woe.
O, I will think of things gone long ago
And weave them to a song, like one more tear
In the heart of misery ... All Kings we were;
And I must wed a King. And sons I brought
My lord King, many sons ... nay, that were naught;
But high strong princes, of all Troy the best.
(...)
Yea, and the gardener of my garden great,
It was not any noise of him nor tale
I wept for; these eyes saw him, when the pale
Was broke, and there at the altar Priam fell
Murdered, and round him all his citadel
Sacked.
(...)
Why raise me any more? What hope have I
To hold me? Take this slave that once trod high
In Ilion; cast her on her bed of clay
Rock-pillowed, to lie down, and pass away
Wasted with tears. And whatso man they call
Happy, believe not ere the last day fall!"
Who wrote this lament by Hecuba, the erstwhile queen of Troy?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
202 times |
| Correct: |
70 times (24.5%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
132 times (46.2%) |
| Skipped: |
84 times (29.4%) |
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"The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more dismal.
(...)
Roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks."
Who wrote this?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
407 times |
| Correct: |
165 times (30.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
242 times (44.0%) |
| Skipped: |
143 times (26.0%) |
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Which battle is described in this passage from Book VIII of Publius Vergilius Maro's (Vergil's) Aeneid, and who is the queen participanting in the battle?
"Amid the main, two mighty fleets engage
Their brazen beaks, oppos'd with equal rage.
(...)
Leucate's wat'ry plain with foamy billows fries.
Young Caesar, on the stern, in armor bright,
Here leads the Romans and their gods to fight:
(...)
Rang'd on the line oppos'd, Antonius brings
Barbarian aids, and troops of Eastern kings;
Th' Arabians near, and Bactrians from afar,
Of tongues discordant, and a mingled war:
And, rich in gaudy robes, amidst the strife,
His ill fate follows him -- th' Egyptian wife.
(...)
It seems, as if the Cyclades again
Were rooted up, and justled in the main;
Or floating mountains floating mountains meet;
Such is the fierce encounter of the fleet.
(...)
The queen herself, amidst the loud alarms,
With cymbals toss'd her fainting soldiers warms --
Fool as she was! who had not yet divin'd
Her cruel fate, nor saw the snakes behind.
Her country gods, the monsters of the sky,
Great Neptune, Pallas, and Love's Queen defy:
The dog Anubis barks, but barks in vain,
Nor longer dares oppose th' ethereal train.
(...)
The trembling Indians and Egyptians yield,
And soft Sabaeans quit the wat'ry field.
The fatal mistress hoists her silken sails,
And, shrinking from the fight, invokes the gales.
(...)
Just opposite, sad Nilus opens wide
His arms and ample bosom to the tide,
And spreads his mantle o'er the winding coast,
In which he wraps his queen, and hides the flying host.
The victor to the gods his thanks express'd,
And Rome, triumphant, with his presence bless'd."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
119 times |
| Correct: |
69 times (35.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
50 times (25.8%) |
| Skipped: |
75 times (38.7%) |
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About whom were these words written, about two thousand years ago?
"Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain
Of our old wickedness, once done away,
Shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.
He shall receive the life of gods, and see
Heroes with gods commingling, and himself
Be seen of them, and with his father's worth
Reign o'er a world at peace."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
69 times |
| Correct: |
31 times (28.7%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
38 times (35.2%) |
| Skipped: |
39 times (36.1%) |
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Of which Roman poet does Pococurante in Voltaire's Candide declare: "There are some maxims ... by which a man of the world can profit, and since they are expressed in forceful verse, they are the more easily committed to memory. But I care little for his visit to Brundisium, and his description of a bad dinner, and the Billingsgate quarrel between some fellow Pupilus, 'whose words', as he says, 'were full of pus', and another whose words 'were as sour as vinegar'. I read with extreme displeasure the coarse verses against old women and witches; and I cannot detect what merit there can be in saying to his friend, Maecenas, that if he will only place him in the ranks of lyric poets, he will touch the stars with his exalted head. Fools admire everything in an established classic. I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
127 times |
| Correct: |
59 times (31.4%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
68 times (36.2%) |
| Skipped: |
61 times (32.4%) |
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Who is the author of the epigraph to James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which goes: "Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes" ("and he devoted himself to/set his mind upon unknown arts")?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
148 times |
| Correct: |
57 times (27.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
91 times (43.5%) |
| Skipped: |
61 times (29.2%) |
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From which Latin poet did Ernest Dowson borrow the title of his poem "Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
96 times |
| Correct: |
24 times (16.4%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
72 times (49.3%) |
| Skipped: |
50 times (34.2%) |
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Poet Cecil Day-Lewis translated the complete works of which of these Roman writers (considered by many to be the finest English verse translation of this ancient poet's work in existence)?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
46 times |
| Correct: |
16 times (20.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
30 times (37.5%) |
| Skipped: |
34 times (42.5%) |
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"Of arms and the man I sing" is the beginning of ...
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
801 times |
| Correct: |
248 times (23.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
553 times (52.7%) |
| Skipped: |
248 times (23.6%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
46 times |
| Correct: |
15 times (24.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
31 times (50.0%) |
| Skipped: |
16 times (25.8%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
41 times |
| Correct: |
30 times (53.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
11 times (19.6%) |
| Skipped: |
15 times (26.8%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
40 times |
| Correct: |
18 times (31.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
22 times (38.6%) |
| Skipped: |
17 times (29.8%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
Ah what avails the sceptered race!
Ah what the form divine!
What every virtue, every grace!
Rose Aylmer, all were thine.
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
May weep, but never see,
A night of memories and sighs
I consecrate to thee.
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
40 times |
| Correct: |
17 times (30.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
23 times (41.8%) |
| Skipped: |
15 times (27.3%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
28 times |
| Correct: |
12 times (30.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
16 times (41.0%) |
| Skipped: |
11 times (28.2%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
27 times |
| Correct: |
14 times (36.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
13 times (34.2%) |
| Skipped: |
11 times (28.9%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet:
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
46 times |
| Correct: |
41 times (77.4%) |
| Difficulty: |
easy |
| Incorrect: |
5 times (9.4%) |
| Skipped: |
7 times (13.2%) |
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