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John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost" to be the first Christian epic. Who, do many say, is the unintentional hero of this work?
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| Answered: |
22366 times |
| Correct: |
17997 times (65.5%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
4369 times (15.9%) |
| Skipped: |
5123 times (18.6%) |
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Who is the hero in John Milton's Paradise Lost?
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| Answered: |
144 times |
| Correct: |
48 times (29.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
96 times (59.6%) |
| Skipped: |
17 times (10.6%) |
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What is true of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost?
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| Answered: |
9288 times |
| Correct: |
4656 times (35.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
4632 times (35.7%) |
| Skipped: |
3700 times (28.5%) |
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If cats could write poetry, in Henry Beard's Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse, whose cat might have submitted an entry entitled "The Cat's Tale?"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
240 times |
| Correct: |
182 times (52.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
58 times (16.8%) |
| Skipped: |
106 times (30.6%) |
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If cats could write poetry, in Henry Beard's Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse, whose cat might have submitted an entry entitled "Vet, Be Not Proud?"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
175 times |
| Correct: |
130 times (53.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
45 times (18.4%) |
| Skipped: |
69 times (28.3%) |
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If cats could write poetry, in Henry Beard's Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse, whose cat might have submitted an entry asking the "heavenly Mews" to sing
"Of cats' first disobedience, and the height
Of that forbidden tree whose doom'd ascent
Brought man into the world to help us down
And made us subject to his moods and whims?"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
193 times |
| Correct: |
152 times (57.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
41 times (15.5%) |
| Skipped: |
71 times (26.9%) |
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Which of these titles is NOT taken from Paradise Lost by John Milton?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
273 times |
| Correct: |
77 times (20.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
196 times (51.6%) |
| Skipped: |
107 times (28.2%) |
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Which famous epic poet (and his greatest work) does Pococurante, in Voltaire's Candide, describe as being "that barbarian who made a tedious commentary on the first chapter of Genesis in ten books of rugged verse. That clumsy imitator of the Greeks, who disfigures the creation and, instead of representing the Eternal Being, as Moses does, creating the universe at a word, makes the Messiah take a large pair of compasses from one of the cupboards of heaven to draw a plan of his intended work. Do you expect me to appreciate the man ... who disguises Lucifer first as a toad and then as a pigmy, who makes him repeat the same speeches a hundred times, and even argue about theology?"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
304 times |
| Correct: |
199 times (45.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
105 times (23.9%) |
| Skipped: |
136 times (30.9%) |
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Which one of these is considered (rightly or wrongly) the longest complete poem in the English language?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
84 times |
| Correct: |
38 times (34.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
46 times (42.2%) |
| Skipped: |
25 times (22.9%) |
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Who describes our first frail mother, when he tells us that women are formed for "softness" and "sweet attractive grace?"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
228 times |
| Correct: |
121 times (21.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
107 times (18.6%) |
| Skipped: |
347 times (60.3%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet: "They also serve who only stand and wait."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
521 times |
| Correct: |
222 times (28.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
299 times (38.1%) |
| Skipped: |
264 times (33.6%) |
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Fill in the surname of the correct poet in this excerpt from Jane Austen's novel, Sense and Sensibility:
"You have already ascertained Mr. Willoughby's opinion in almost every matter of importance. You know what he thinks of Cowper and Scott; you are certain of his estimating their beauties as he ought, and you have received every assurance of his admiring _________ no more than is proper."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
173 times |
| Correct: |
46 times (19.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
127 times (52.9%) |
| Skipped: |
67 times (27.9%) |
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In her Book of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan uses the following "pot calling the kettle black" comparison in order to highlight the unequal standards applied to men and women in society:
"Since men accuse women of frailty, one would suppose that they themselves take care to maintain a reputation for _________, or at the very least, that the women are indeed less so than they are themselves. And yet, it is obvious that they demand of women greater __________ than they themselves have, for they who claim to be of this strong and noble condition cannot refrain from a whole number of very great defects and sins, and not out of ignorance, either, but out of pure malice, knowing well how badly they are misbehaving. But all this they excuse in themselves and say that it is in the nature of man to sin, yet if it so happens that any women stray into any misdeed (of which they themselves are the cause by their great power and longhandedness), then it's suddenly all frailty and __________, they claim. But it seems to me that men should not ascribe to women as a great crime what in themselves they merely consider a little defect."
What is the thing that, Christine de Pizan feels, is unjustly considered merely a minor defect in men, but the gravest and most serious failing imaginable in women?
(The translation of the above excerpt is mine, btw., so googling the answer will only get you so far ...)
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
60 times |
| Correct: |
31 times (30.7%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
29 times (28.7%) |
| Skipped: |
41 times (40.6%) |
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Who said of William Shakespeare that nothing could be "more trivial and contemptible than his work" and that the implications of his plays "are of the basest, most immoral kind"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
88 times |
| Correct: |
21 times (16.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
67 times (51.5%) |
| Skipped: |
42 times (32.3%) |
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Fill in the missing name in this statement by Thomas Mann:
"Even the last of the species can with modest pride recognize his own affliction, his own happiness in __________"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
49 times |
| Correct: |
10 times (12.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
39 times (48.1%) |
| Skipped: |
32 times (39.5%) |
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This stanza comes from a long poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning dealing with which poet? His surname is left blank in this quotation:
"It went up from the Holy's lips amid his
lost creation,
That, of the lost, no son should use those
words of desolation!
That Earth's worst frenzies, marring
hope, should mar not hope's fruition,
And I, on _______'s grave, should see his
rapture in a vision."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
56 times |
| Correct: |
14 times (17.7%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
42 times (53.2%) |
| Skipped: |
23 times (29.1%) |
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To which poet is Anne Brontë addressing these lines?
“Sweet are thy strains, celestial Bard;
And oft, in childhood’s years,
I’ve read them o’er and o’er again,
With floods of silent tears.
The language of my inmost heart,
I traced in every line;
My sins, my sorrows, hopes and fears,
Were there – and only mine.
All for myself the sigh would swell,
The fear of anguish start;
I little knew what wilder woe
Had filled the Poet’s heart.”
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
69 times |
| Correct: |
13 times (13.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
56 times (56.0%) |
| Skipped: |
31 times (31.0%) |
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From The Top 500 Poems edited by William Harmon:
Name the quoted poet: "Death, be not proud."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
172 times |
| Correct: |
119 times (54.1%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
53 times (24.1%) |
| Skipped: |
48 times (21.8%) |
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