Q 01/05

How many sonnets did Shakespeare publish in the 1609 quarto?

A) 154

B) 100

C) 126

D) 140

Answer · why

A) 154

The first 126 address a young man, the rest a woman; the mysterious dedication is to 'Mr. W.H.'

Q 02/05

What is the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean (English) sonnet?

A) ABBA ABBA CDE CDE

B) AABB CCDD EEFF GG

C) ABAB BCBC CDCD EE

D) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Answer · why

D) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Three quatrains and a closing couplet, in iambic pentameter.

Q 03/05

Of Emily Dickinson's nearly 1,800 poems, roughly how many were published in her lifetime?

A) 100

B) 250

C) None

D) 10

Answer · why

D) 10

Her sister Lavinia found the rest in a desk after her death in 1886; the first, heavily edited collection appeared in 1890.

Q 04/05

Emily Dickinson's poems are recognisable for slant rhyme, odd capitalisation and heavy use of which punctuation mark?

A) The dash

B) The semicolon

C) The exclamation mark

D) Parentheses

Answer · why

A) The dash

Her 1890 editors regularised her punctuation to 19th-century norms; scholarly editions restored it.

Q 05/05

Poe's 'The Raven' was inspired partly by a talking raven in which Charles Dickens novel?

A) Oliver Twist

B) Bleak House

C) Barnaby Rudge

D) Hard Times

Answer · why

C) Barnaby Rudge

Poe sold the poem for $9; it made him famous but, as he complained, no money. The Baltimore Ravens are named for it.