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Poetry quiz - next lines

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    Poetry quiz - next lines

    A small diversion. What (fairly famous, I hope, though some are probably more familiar than others) lines follow the extracts below? Bonus points if you identify the authors.

    ===

    1

    For Thine is the Kingdom

    For Thine is
    Life is
    For Thine is the...

    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.


    TS Eliot - The Hollow Men (both parts identified by ToastBasedKillah with a bonus to Carlo Ginzburg for precision)

    ===

    2

    The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
    Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:-...

    The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

    Thomas Gray - Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard (both parts identified by nefertiti)

    ===

    3

    When old age shall this generation waste,
    Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
    Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,...

    Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.


    John Keats - Ode on a Grecian Urn (both parts identified by Ibn Pickthall)
    ===

    4

    And though that he were worthy, he was wys,
    And of his port as meeke as is a mayde.
    He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde
    In al his lyf unto no maner wight...

    He was a verray, parfit, gentil knyght. (identified by nefertiti)

    Geoffrey Chaucer - The General Prologue to the Canterbury tales (identified by Purves Grundy)

    ===

    5

    Nobody heard him, the dead man,
    But still he lay moaning:
    I was much further out than you thought...

    And not waving but drowning. (identified by Purves Grundy)

    Stevie Smith - Not Waving But Drowning (identified by nefertiti)

    ===

    6

    I hold it true, whate'er befall;
    I feel it, when I sorrow most;...

    Tis better to have loved and lost
    Than never to have loved at all
    (identified by Ibn Pickthall)

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Lost Love from In Memoriam (identified by Ginger Yellow)

    ===

    7

    Why, if 'tis dancing you would be,
    There's brisker pipes than poetry.
    Say, for what were hop-yards meant,
    Or why was Burton built on Trent?
    Oh many a peer of England brews
    Livelier liquor than the Muse,...

    And malt does more than Milton can
    To justify God's ways to man.
    (identified by nefertiti)

    AE Houseman - Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff from A Shropshire Lad (identified by Carlo Ginzburg)

    ===

    8

    Though I've belted you and flayed you,
    By the livin' Gawd that made you,...

    You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

    Rudyard Kipling - Gunga Din (both parts identified by nefertiti)

    ===

    9

    The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,
    Which Man deemed old two thousand years ago.
    Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,...

    A rose-red city half as old as time. (identified by nefertiti)

    ===

    10

    My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky:
    So was it when my life began;
    So is it now I am a man;
    So be it when I shall grow old,
    Or let me die!...

    William Wordswoth - My Heart Leaps Up (also known as The Rainbow) (identified by Ibn Pickthall)

    #2
    Poetry quiz - next lines

    5 - And not waving but drowning.

    Comment


      #3
      Poetry quiz - next lines

      And 4 must be Chaucer.

      Comment


        #4
        Poetry quiz - next lines

        Yes, and yes.

        Comment


          #5
          Poetry quiz - next lines

          is three that curfew tolling the knell poem, whose name and author completely escape me

          Comment


            #6
            Poetry quiz - next lines

            It is. That iambic pentameter is a bit of a give-away, isn't it?

            Comment


              #7
              Poetry quiz - next lines

              No points for that, though.

              Comment


                #8
                Poetry quiz - next lines

                There'll be a special bonus point for getting number 1 exactly right.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Poetry quiz - next lines

                  After a good year of lurking around OTF, the promise of an extra point has finally made me register.
                  Number 1 is "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper" from The Hollow Men by TS Eliot.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Poetry quiz - next lines

                    One point, but not the bonus. So close, though.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Poetry quiz - next lines

                      Oh, and one point for Eliot.

                      And hello - delighted to have lured you in.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Poetry quiz - next lines

                        Yeah, welcome!

                        This is hard, isn't it?

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Poetry quiz - next lines

                          Has anybody ever made their debut post in Books before? A very welcome development.

                          Tubby - all the answers are, I hope, reasonably familiar quotations (as the answers already supply illustrate). The preceding lines that I quote aren't so well known, but I suspect in many instances the rhythm and rhyme might give a bit of a pointer.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Poetry quiz - next lines

                            This new board is difficult to navigate, isn't it?

                            Number 3 is Keats, Ode to/on a Grecian Urn.

                            "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all
                            Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Poetry quiz - next lines

                              8 You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

                              Kipling

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Poetry quiz - next lines

                                10 is Wordsworth, I can't recall the name of the poem or the next line. I think it's from The Prelude.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Poetry quiz - next lines

                                  And 10 is Wordsworth. Lyrical ballads.

                                  Can't remember how it goes on...

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Poetry quiz - next lines

                                    Ibn and nefertiti: all correct - except I'm not sure the Wordswoth is from either the Lyrical Ballads or The Prelude. I could be wrong, though.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Poetry quiz - next lines

                                      Current scores:

                                      Code:
                                      Ibn Pickthall      3
                                      nefertiti          2
                                      Purves Grundy      2
                                      ToastBasedKillah   2

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Poetry quiz - next lines

                                        6. "Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all"

                                        I don't even faintly recognise any of the others.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Poetry quiz - next lines

                                          None of them are Vergil or Dante, Andy. Like the Gothic mason, I devote my lifetime to the edifice of a small number of poems.

                                          The Wordsworth is not from The Prelude, which doesn't have any rhyme.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Poetry quiz - next lines

                                            Bit late to the party, but I'll claim Ibn Pickthall's bonus point for 6 - it's Tennyson.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Poetry quiz - next lines

                                              Good teamwork, IP and GY.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Poetry quiz - next lines

                                                Not waving but Drowning is Stevie Smith

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Poetry quiz - next lines

                                                  And 2 is the paths of glory lead but to the grave which is i think

                                                  Thomas Gray's 'Elegy in a country churchyard"

                                                  Comment

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