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Poetry is a powerful and expressive art form that has been used to capture the human experience for centuries. From classical sonnets and haikus to modern free verse and slam poetry, poetry encompasses a wide range of styles, techniques, and perspectives that are essential to the development of language and culture. Trivia questions about poetry can provide a fun and engaging way to test your knowledge and deepen your appreciation for this dynamic and diverse art form.
Whether you're a seasoned poet or just starting to explore the world of language and literature, poetry trivia questions offer a glimpse into the rich history and culture of this exciting field. From the basics of rhyme and meter to the major movements and poets that have shaped the genre, these questions can challenge you on your knowledge of poetry history, theory, and practice.
1. The Folger Library located on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. is home to large collection of printed works by what Bard of English poetry and plays?
Answer: William Shakespeare
2. Used in ancient times by the poet Tibullus, "The Eternal City" is a nickname given to what European capital?
Answer: Rome
3. While he was better known for his macabre poetry, who also wrote some of the first “detective mysteries,” which starred one C. Auguste Dupin?
Answer: Edgar Allan Poe
4. In poetry, formal verse has a meter and rhyme scheme. Blank verse has meter, but no rhyme scheme. What type of verse does not use meter or rhyme scheme? Take a guess if you don’t know, it won’t cost you anything if you’re wrong.
Answer: Free
5. Walt Whitman famously described the poetry of what fellow American as "a propensity toward nocturnal themes, a demoniac undertone behind every page?"
Answer: Edgar Allan Poe
6. The Divine Comedy, a massive narrative poem including sections for Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, completed in 1320, is the best known work of what Italian poet?
Answer: Dante
7. Suleiman the Magnificent was the tenth and longest-ruling sultan of what empire? Lauded for ruling during this empire's "golden age," Suleiman himself was an accomplished poet and goldsmith.
Answer: Ottoman Empire
8. What epic John Milton poem, first published in 1667, concerns the fall of Lucifer from Heaven, and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden?
Answer: Paradise Lost
9. Born in Mountain Home, Arkansas, what poet was a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island? Her poetry frequently conveys a sense of place and time, particularly focused on the American South.
Answer: C. D. Wright
10. What prize is given to the winner of Mount Holyoke College's annual invitation-only poetry competition, whose notable winners include Sylvia Plath and James Merrill?
Answer: Glascock Prize
11. Featuring a military rank in its repetitive title, what 1865 Walt Whitman poem was written as a memorial to recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln?
Answer: O Captain! My Captain!
12. "Candy is dandy / But liquor is quicker," according to what often pithy American poet?
Answer: Ogden Nash
13. "The Burial of the Dead" and "The Chess Game" are sections from what 1922 poem by T.S. Eliot, commonly regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century?
Answer: The Waste Land
14. In 2019, musician and writer Joy Harjo was the first Native American to be bestowed with what honorific U.S. title that’s associated with the Library of Congress? (Hint: She didn’t have to write an ode to her appointer, the Librarian of the United States Congress.)
Answer: U.S. Poet Laureate
15. Although her life tragically ended at the age of 30, what American poet and short-story writer is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for collections such as "The Bell Jar?" She posthumously won a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for her collected poems.
Answer: Sylvia Plath
16. Appointed in 2019, Joy Harjo became the first Native American to hold what honorific U.S. government title formerly called the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress?
Answer: Poet Laureate
17. In 1794, William Blake wrote about what powerful animal in a poem, wondering what kind of hand or eye “Dared frame thy fearful symmetry?” It was also the name of the dog on “The Brady Bunch.”
Answer: Tiger
18. Who was fired from the U.S. Interior Department in 1865 for having written the poetry collection "Leaves of Grass?"
Answer: Walt Whitman
19. The word "Lesbian" comes from the Greek island of Lesbos, home to what ancient poet, whose lyric poetry remains an enduring symbol of love and desire between women?
Answer: Sappho
20. What acclaimed children's author and poet spent much of his career as a cartoonist for Playboy and also wrote songs for the 1960s folk scene?
Answer: Shel Silverstein
21. What body of work by William Shakespeare is sometimes split into sections called "Fair Youth" and "Dark Lady"?
Answer: Sonnets
22. The National Museum of African-American History and Culture features a quote engraved in a wall from "I, Too," a classic poem by what leader of the Harlem Renaissance?
Answer: Langston Hughes
23. What 20th-century Welsh poet is perhaps best remembered for his poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” as well as stories such as “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog?”
Answer: Dylan Thomas
24. "Black, lesbian, warrior, mother, poet" was the self-description of what poet who said "I am Black because I come from the earth's inside" in her poem "Coal?"
Answer: Audre Lorde
25. What “A” word refers to the repetition of internal vowel sounds in words that are close together, often used to create a lyrical effect in poetry?
Answer: assonance
26. Containing the famous line "Give me your tired, your poor," what is the "monumental" name of the 1883 Emma Lazarus sonnet that appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty?
Answer: The New Colossus
27. What 20th century Cuban poet was a rebellious critic of the Cuban government and Fidel Castro? His books include “Before Night Falls” and “El Color Del Verano.”
Answer: Reinaldo Arenas
28. The Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, VA, is home to a museum dedicated to what 19th century American author? He is known for poems such as “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells”, as well as many dark stories and detective fiction.
Answer: Edgar Allan Poe
29. From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem Paul Revere’s Ride, “One if by land, and…” what four-word phrase is ingrained into U.S. schoolchildren's’ minds referring to lanterns hung in the Old North Church?
Answer: Two If By Sea
30. A popular interlibrary loan service is known by what name chosen to sound like one of Homer's most famous epic poems?
Answer: Illiad
31. Every year I write a new type of poem. Two years ago it was a limerick. Last year was a haiku. This year I'll learn what 14-line poem that's often used to express a romantic desire? Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of them.
Answer: Sonnet
32. What Sheryl Crow song takes place on Santa Monica Blvd and opens with a line from a poem in which the writer opines they just “wanna have a little fun” before they die?
Answer: All I Wanna Do
33. A landmarked brownstone at 20 E. 127th St. in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood is the former residence of what poet, whose poems like "The Weary Blues" were significant hallmarks of the Harlem Renaissance?
Answer: Langston Hughes
34. Located within the Irish province of Munster, what city in Ireland is also a type of five-line poem which famously follows an AABBA rhyming scheme?
Answer: Limerick
35. The Divine Comedy, a massive narrative poem including sections for Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, completed in 1320, is the best known work of what Italian poet?
Answer: Dante
36. Sequoioideae is the scientific name of what coniferous trees found in Northern California? The color in its name is reminiscent of a wheelbarrow from a poem by William Carlos Williams.
Answer: redwood
37. What 1854 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson memorializes a failed British cavalry action in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War?
Answer: The Charge of the Light Brigade
38. In a famous poem, Joyce Kilmer writes, "I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as" what type of natural object?
Answer: A tree
39. Which famous musical is based on a 1939 collection of poems by T. S. Eliot?
Answer: Cats
40. The name of what ancient Greek epic poem follows the word "Magnavox" to name the first commercial home video game console?
Answer: Odyssey
41. What epic John Milton poem, first published in 1667, concerns the fall of Lucifer from Heaven, and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden?
Answer: Paradise Lost
42. The word comes from the Dakota word for waterfall and is the name of a female character from a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem. The word is also a park, creek, and academy in Minnesota. What is the word?
Answer: Minnehaha
43. Translating as "my fatherland," "Ma Vlast" is a group of six symphonic tone poems written in the 1870s by what Czech composer?
Answer: Bedrich Smetana
44. During his embassy days in Rome, 14th and 15th century Dutch erotic poet-slash-diplomat Dirc Potter van der Loo found inspiration for his epic poem "The Course of Love" in the works of what saucy Florentine "Decameron" writer?
Answer: Giovanni Boccaccio
45. "The Burial of the Dead" and "The Chess Game" are sections from what 1922 poem by T.S. Eliot, commonly regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century?
Answer: The Waste Land
46. "Was it for this the wild geese spread" is a line from "September 1913," a poem by what Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet?
Answer: William Butler Yeats
47. James Joyce's seminal book Ulysses takes place on a single day in Dublin, but is heavily based on what epic poem that covers a decade of travel around the Mediterranean Sea?
Answer: The Odyssey
48. At the end of the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, the students stand on their desk reciting "O Captain! My Captain!" in support of fired teacher John Keating. Keating taught the students the famous poem, which was written by what poet upon the death of President Abraham Lincoln?
Answer: Walt Whitman
49. The first mention of dragons in Greek literature can be found in this epic poem, which describes Agamemnon wearing a blue dragon design on his sword belt and a three-headed dragon seal on his breastplate.
Answer: The Iliad
50. In a famous poem by Edward Lear, and Owl and a Pussy-cat go to sea in a boat, described as being the color of what green vegetable?
Answer: Pea
51. Better remembered as a silversmith, he also practiced dentistry - which American revolutionary's activities during the night of April 18, 1775 is the subject of one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's most famous poems?
Answer: Paul Revere
52. Copies of what long Allen Ginsberg poem were famously seized by San Francisco police and U.S. Customs officials in 1956 on charges of obscenity?
Answer: Howl
53. Which poet raised by a single mom in Watts became the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and became a sensation when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021?
Answer: Amanda Gorman
54. What famed Boston author of "Little Women" was previously taught by Henry David Thoreau and even penned him a poem titled "Thoreau's Flute?"?
Answer: Louisa May Alcott
55. What New England-born poet was famously prolific, but having written nearly 1,800 poems had fewer than a dozen published during her lifetime? Famous poems include "Because I could not stop for Death" and "Tell all the truth but tell it slant."
Answer: Emily Dickinson
56. The poem 'Filipinas' was adapted to become the lyrics for this song, while the music was written by Julian Felipe. Originally called the "Marcha Nacional Filipina", what is this famous song better known as today?
Answer: Lupang Hinirang
57. What groundbreaking Black American poet wrote, "I always like summer / best / you can eat fresh corn / from daddy's garden" in "Knoxville, Tennessee," a poem about her hometown?
Answer: Nikki Giovanni
58. Who wrote “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” in his poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn?”
Answer: John Keats
59. The King, the Queen, and the Dairymaid are characters in "The King's Breakfast," a poem by what English author best known for creating Winnie the Pooh?
Answer: A.A. Milne
60. Robert Frost, who attended Harvard from 1897 to 1899, famously wrote what poem that ends "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference?"
Answer: The Road Not Taken
61. The term "robot" was introduced in what form of literature (novel, play, short story, article, book, poem) by Czech writer, Karel Capek, in 1920?
Answer: Play
62. Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal is based on 13th century German poem about the title Knight of the Round Table and his search for what sacred object?
Answer: The Holy Grail
63. The National Museum of African-American History and Culture features a quote engraved in a wall from "I, Too," a classic poem by what leader of the Harlem Renaissance?
Answer: Langston Hughes
64. What 20th-century Welsh poet is perhaps best remembered for his poem “Do not go gentle into that good night,” as well as stories such as “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog?”
Answer: Dylan Thomas
65. Which Greek epic poem is believed to include the first written reference to earplugs, which are suggested to the tale’s protagonist as a way to avoid the fatal call of the Sirens?
Answer: The Odyssey
66. In the poem, "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear, the Owl obtained a ring for the Pussycat from the nose of what animal?
Answer: Piggywig
67. Incorporating his birth country into its name, what tone poem is Jean Sibelius’ most famous compositions, and was composed in 1899?
Answer: Finlandia
68. In what 1995 poem did Maya Angelou declare, "Pretty women wonder where my secret lies / I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size?"
Answer: Phenomenal Woman
69. "Boston Hymn" is a 19th-century poem by what American thinker also known for his essays like "Nature" and "Self-Reliance?"
Answer: Ralph Waldo Emerson
70. In the poem, "The Owl and The Pussycat," by Edward Lear, who lived on a hill and married the couple?
Answer: The Turkey
71. According to the Lydia Child poem "Thanksgiving Day," it's just "over the river, and through the wood" to reach the house of what relative?
Answer: Grandfather
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