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Closed Topics > Quiz: A Sense of an Ending

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message 1: by Justine (last edited Dec 07, 2020 12:44AM) (new)

Justine | 549 comments It's the last month of the year, and it seems appropriate to focus on endings. So for December I’m experimenting with a different sort of quiz. .

You will find here, first, a list of 24 poets, in alphabetical order. Below that are numbered quotations from the endings of 24 different poems. Your task is to match the quote with the poet. Even if you don’t know the featured poem you can of course take a guess, based on what you know about the poet, their time or culture, or indeed simply make a random choice.

I won’t be commenting on your answers through the week, if you choose to post them, but will close the quiz on Sunday night, with solutions revealed Monday. Have fun!


Maya Angelou; W H Auden; Pam Ayres; Elizabeth Bishop
Emily Brontë; Anne Carson; John Clare; Emily Dickinson
Robert Frost ; Allen Ginsberg; Seamus Heaney; Felicia Hemans
Langston Hughes; Philip Larkin; John Milton; Alice Oswald
Dorothy Parker; Sylvia Plath; P B Shelley; Sir Philip Sidney
Stevie Smith; Walt Whitman; Mary Wroth; W B Yeats


1.
So soft upon the Scene
The Act of Evening fell
We felt how neighborly a Thing
Was the invisible.

2.
[....] Now
Night comes on. Waves fold behind villages.


3.
and when it rains, the very integer
and shape of water disappears in water.

4.
And I let the fish go.

5.
Then let us sit and watch the while
The blue ice curdling on the stream.

6.
One moment, and that realm is ours! On, on, dark rolling stream!

7.
All the rest is silence
On the other side of the wall;
And the silence ripeness,
And the ripeness all.

8.
My unseen spirit haunts its daisied grave
Pausing on scenes that life once loved so dear

9.
My words lick around
Cobbled quays, go hunting
Lightly as pampooties
Over the skull-capped ground.

10.
‘Then, what is life?’ I cried.

11.
Vague memories, nothing but memories.

12.
And when you go – and go you must –
You, yourself, will make more dust.

13.
Remember my words, I may again return,
I love you, I depart from materials,
I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.

14.
Now let your constancy your honor prove.

15.
‘But oh!’ Desire still cries, ‘give me some food!’

16.
And what goes on, my love, while you’re away
You’ll never know.

17.
Thieves honour him. In the underworld he rides carelessly.
Sometimes he rises into the air and flies silently.

18.
I rise
I rise
I rise

19.
When you throw
Cold water on me,
I’ll sign the
Paper.

20.
Oh, yes, he showed John the wheel pit all right.

21.
Lord Lord Lord caw caw caw Lord Lord Lord caw caw caw Lord

22.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

23.
Around sunrise Agathon and Aristophanes doze off. Sokrates tucks them into their cloaks and goes his way.

24.
Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.


message 2: by Gpfr (last edited Dec 07, 2020 11:05AM) (new)

Gpfr | 6659 comments Mod
Fun idea, but hard! I haven't got very far ...
24 - John Milton
1 - Emily Dickinson
7 - W.H. Auden


message 3: by Slawkenbergius (new)

Slawkenbergius | 425 comments Oh well, I knew I should have read more poetry. Here's a (highly) fragmented contribution:

13) W. Whitman

21) A. Ginsberg


message 4: by Alwynne (new)

Alwynne 5. Emily Bronte

9. Seamus Heaney

16. Dorothy Parker

18. Maya Angelou


message 5: by Gpfr (new)

Gpfr | 6659 comments Mod
22 - Sylvia Plath (of course!)
2 - Philip Larkin
4 - Elizabeth Bishop


message 6: by Max (Outrage) (new)

Max (Outrage) | 74 comments 24. John Milton.


message 7: by giveusaclue (new)

giveusaclue | 2581 comments Oh dear, I got nul points! 🙄


Shelflife_wasBooklooker 10 P.B. Shelley
15 is from Sidney's "Astrophil and Stella" sequence.


message 9: by Justine (new)

Justine | 549 comments The following ten poets are still unclaimed:
Pam Ayres
Anne Carson
John Clare
Robert Frost
Felicia Hemans
Langston Hughes
Alice Oswald
Stevie Smith
Mary Wroth
W B Yeats


message 10: by Justine (new)

Justine | 549 comments And the following fragments still have no poets!

3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 23


message 11: by Gpfr (new)

Gpfr | 6659 comments Mod
i'm rather ashamed not to have identified the Yeats!


message 12: by CCCubbon (last edited Dec 09, 2020 05:44AM) (new)

CCCubbon | 2371 comments 23 Anne Carson Oh What a night.
17. Stevie Smith The Ambassador


message 13: by CCCubbon (last edited Dec 09, 2020 05:31AM) (new)

CCCubbon | 2371 comments 8 oneof my favourites - John Clare

11 WB Yeats Broken Dreams


message 14: by Maxine Fay (new)

Maxine Fay | 1 comments Mary Wroth is 14 I believe. I suspect. 4. is Alice a Oswald but I have no proof (From Dart?)


message 15: by Gpfr (new)

Gpfr | 6659 comments Mod
Maxine Fay wrote: " I suspect 4. is Alice Oswald but I have no proof (From Dart?)"

No, 4 is Elizabeth Bishop 'The Fish'


message 16: by Gpfr (new)

Gpfr | 6659 comments Mod
20 - Robert Frost


message 17: by CCCubbon (last edited Dec 13, 2020 10:59PM) (new)

CCCubbon | 2371 comments 6 Felicia Hemans. Indian Woman’s Death Song


message 18: by scarletnoir (last edited Dec 13, 2020 08:50PM) (new)

scarletnoir | 4411 comments Not much of a poetry reader, TBH, but trying to match poets to unclaimed quotes - could 12 be the incomparable Pam Ayres?

(Just noticed that one has been claimed - so no idea!)


message 19: by CCCubbon (new)

CCCubbon | 2371 comments I think number 3 is Alice Oswald but I have not been able to trace the source yet, probably Dart.


message 20: by Justine (last edited Dec 14, 2020 01:48AM) (new)

Justine | 549 comments scarletnoir wrote: "Not much of a poetry reader, TBH, but trying to match poets to unclaimed quotes - could 12 be the incomparable Pam Ayres?

(Just noticed that one has been claimed - so no idea!)"


Alas, Pam Ayres was a mistake. As CCCubbon rightly noted (but then deleted? I can't find the post now) the poet of 12 is Rose Milligan. I think the unidentified poet is the African-American Langston Hughes.


message 21: by Justine (new)

Justine | 549 comments Well! I have to say Team Ersatz really rose to the challenge, and in such a collegial way! Nearly all the clues were solved, and CCCubbon, curator of the excellent ‘Place for a Poem’ discreetly corrected my error in ascribing ‘Dust If You Must’ to Pam Ayres, when it was written by Rose Milligan. My thanks to her, and apologies all round.

I’m hoping to put together another quiz in January, which I promise will be shorter, and solidly fiction-based. Meanwhile, the solutions are here.

1.
So soft upon the Scene
The Act of Evening fell
We felt how neighborly a Thing
Was the invisible.
(Emily Dickinson, ‘The Mountain stood in Haze’)

2.
[ ] Now
Night comes on. Waves fold behind villages.

(Philip Larkin
3.
and when it rains, the very integer
and shape of water disappears in water.
(Alice Oswald, ‘Sea Sonnet’)

4.
And I let the fish go.
(Elizabeth Bishop, ‘The Fish’)

5.
Then let us sit and watch the while
The blue ice curdling on the stream.
(Emile Brontë, ‘How still, how happy!’)

6.
One moment, and that realm is ours! On, on, dark rolling stream!
(Felicia Hemans, ‘Indian Woman’s Death Song’)

7.
All the rest is silence
On the other side of the wall;
And the silence ripeness,
And the ripeness all.
(W H Auden, ‘Preface’ to The Sea and the Mirror)

8.
My unseen spirit haunts its daisied grave
Pausing on scenes that life once loved so dear
(John Clare, ‘A Wish’)

9.
My words lick around
Cobbled quays, go hunting
Lightly as pampooties
Over the skull-capped ground.
(Seamus Heaney, Poem VI of ‘Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces’)

10.
‘Then, what is life?’ I cried.
(P B Shelley, ‘The Triumph of Life’)

11.
Vague memories, nothing but memories.
(W B Yeats, ‘Broken Dreams’)

12.
And when you go – and go you must –
You, yourself, will make more dust.
(Rosie Milligannot Pam Ayres, ‘Dust If You Must’)

13.
Remember my words, I may again return,
I love you, I depart from materials,
I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.
(Walt Whitman, ‘So long’ in Songs of Parting)

14.
Now let your constancy your honor prove.
(Mary Wroth, Sonnet 103 from A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love)

15.
‘But oh!’ Desire still cries, ‘give me some food!’
(Sir Philip Sidney, Sonnet 71, Astrophel and Stella)


16.
And what goes on, my love, while you’re away
You’ll never know.
(Dorothy Parker, ‘A Certain Lady’)

17.
Thieves honour him. In the underworld he rides carelessly.
Sometimes he rises into the air and flies silently.
(Stevie Smith, ‘The Ambassador’)

18.
I rise
I rise
I rise
(Maya Angelou, ‘Still I Rise’)

19.
When you throw
Cold water on me,
I’ll sign the
Paper.
(Langston Hughes, ‘Third Degree’)

20.
Oh, yes, he showed John the wheel pit all right.
(Robert Frost
21.
Lord Lord Lord caw caw caw Lord Lord Lord caw caw caw Lord
(Allen Ginsberg, Kaddish)

22.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
(Sylvia Plath, ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’)

23.
Around sunrise Agathon and Aristophanes doze off. Sokrates tucks them into their cloaks and goes his way.
(Anne Carson, ‘Oh What A Night (Alkibiades)) – LRB, 19 Nov 2020

24.
Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
(John Milton, ‘Lycidas’)


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