Games Britannica Quizzes
Britannica Menu History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Question: Which of these words relates to poetry?
Answer: Meter is the pattern of rhythm in a line of poetry, formed by stressing certain syllables.
Question: What is the most common meter in English poetry?
Answer: The iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry. An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.
Question: The greatest poet of Russia’s golden age was:
Answer: Alexander Pushkin, who wrote in the early nineteenth century, is considered to be the greatest poet of Russia’s golden age.
Question: Who wrote the poem "Jabberwocky"?
Answer: The poem "Jabberwocky" is part of Lewis Carroll’s novel Through the Looking-Glass.
Question: Who wrote the long poem The Waste Land?
Answer: T.S. Eliot won international acclaim with the appearance of The Waste Land in 1922. It is a long poem that powerfully expresses the disillusionment and disgust of the period after World War I.
Question: Which of these was a 19th-century American poet?
Answer: Emily Dickinson was a poet from Massachusetts. She lived from 1830 to 1886.
Question: Which of these is not a poetic form?
Answer: An almanac is a type of reference book containing not only calendars, weather predictions, and other useful information but also all sorts of other miscellaneous facts.
Question: In what poem does a sailor suffer bad luck for killing an albatross?
Answer: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is a poem about a sailor who is cursed for killing an albatross.
Question: Which of these poets is said to have died by leaping from a cliff into the sea?
Answer: Legend has it that Sappho, one of the best lyric poets of ancient Greece, leaped to her death from a cliff because of her unrequited love of Phaon, a younger man and a sailor.
Question: Who is the national poet of Scotland?
Answer: The national poet of Scotland is Robert Burns, who wrote poetry and songs in the 18th century.