Poetry Test

Question 1

1807-1882
-Born in Portland, Maine
-At age 14 was accepted to Bowdoin
College in Maine
-By he time he graduated, he had published nearly
40 poems
-Devoted early career to teaching, writing, and
translating work into different languages
-Mainly focused on American history and themes
-Paul Revere’s Ride

Answer 1

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Question 2

• Contain a setting, characters, and a plot

- Their main function is to tell a story

Answer 2

Narrative Poetry

Question 3

-1902-1967
-Was one of the first successful African
American poets to earn a living just from writing
-Was discovered while working as a bus boy
-Wrote novels, short stories, plays, song lyrics, but
he is best known for his poetry
-Mother to Son

Answer 3

Langston Hughes

Question 4

-No regular patterns of rhythm or rhyme
-Some poets use it to capture the sounds
and rhythms of ordinary speech

Answer 4

Free Verse

Question 5

-1917-2000
-Grew up in Chicago
-Parents were very supportive of her writing
-In 1950 she became the first African American
author to when the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
-She was named Poet Laureate of Illinois in
1968
-Speech to the Young

Answer 5

Gwendolyn Brooks

Question 6

-1809-1892
-The fourth son in a family of 12 children
-Grew up in Somersby, England
-In 1827, poetry published in collection called
Poetry by Two Brothers
-After the death of his friend in 1833, Tennyson
was too grief stricken to write poetry for ten years
-Named Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria in 1859
-Wrote about national events
-Charge of the Light Brigade

Answer 6

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Question 7

-1916-1992
-Grew up in Pennsylvania
-Began writing poems at age 7 or 8
-Published over 25 books of adult and children’s
poetry
-Won the Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1946
-Simile: Willow and Ginkgo

Answer 7

Eve Merriam

Question 8

-Born in 1928
-Studied English in Japan
-Completed college in America
-Returned to Japan in 1967
-Taught American Poetry at Toyo University in
Tokyo
-A Loaf of Poetry

Answer 8

Naoshi Koriyama

Question 9

-1819-1892
-Left school at age 11
-Worked as a printer, journalist, and carpenter
-Loved to stroll city streets, these sights and
sounds would often appear in his poetry
-During his life, few critics liked his poetry
-Poetry, Leaves of Grass, was admired by Abraham
Lincoln
-Had a passionate concern for others
-O Captain! My Captain!

Answer 9

Walt Whitma

Question 10

-1892-1950
-Grew up in Camden, Maine
-Published first poem at 14
-Age of 20 wrote nationally recognized poem
“Renascence”
-Won scholarship to attend Vassar College
because of it
-Lived in Greenwich Village—an area of New York
that was a center for artists and writers
-Most successful works written at this time during
early in 1920’s
-Poems often shocked older generation
-Considered to be the voice of the rebellious youth
of her time
-The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver

Answer 10

Enda St. Vincent Millay

Question 11

-Narrative poem that is meant to be recited
or sung
-Tells a story
-Most ballads have regular patterns of rhythm or
rhyme
-Tends to have magic or supernatural

Answer 11

Ballad

Question 12

-1878-1967
-Born the son of Swedish Immigrants
-Quit school after graduating from 8th grade
and spent 10 years working odd jobs
-Experiences working and traveling influenced
writing and Political views
-Writing career took off at age 36 when a
collection of poems where published in Poetry
Magazine
-Jazz Fantasia

Answer 12

Carl Sandburg

Question 13

-1874-1963
-Born in San Francisco, California
-After father’s death, moved to New England with
his family
-Struggled to make a living by farming, teaching,
and writing poetry
-At age 40 moved to England, where his writing
became a success
-Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Answer 13

Robert Frost

Question 14

-Born in 1943
-Born in Knoxville, Tennessee
-Grew up in Lincoln Heights in Cincinnati
-She published her book of poetry in 1968,and her
second a year later, thus launching her career as
a writer
-She has come to be called a National Treasure
and most recently, one of Oprah Winfrey’s twenty
five “Living Legends”
-As an African American, Nikki Giovanny has
written many revolutionary poems reflecting on
the culture and heritage of her race
-Choices
-the drum

Answer 14

Nikki Giovanni

Question 15

• Born in 1949
• Born in the Bronx, New York City
• His parents immigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico
• Writes poetry in Spanish in English
• Currently lives in San Antonio Texas
• He writes for the San Antonio-express is make everyone better
• Identity

Answer 15

Julio Noboa

Question 16

• Does not tell a story
• Express the authors feeling and thoughts
• Address the reader directly

Answer 16

Lyric

Question 17

-1919-1989
-Poet and teacher
-Many of her poems show an interest in science
and outer space
-Wrote in free verse
-Southbound on the Freeway

Answer 17

May Swenson

Question 18

-1894-1962
-Began to experiment writing while a
student at Harvard
-Volunteered for duty in WW1 and served as
and ambulance drive in a France
-Because he wrote suspicious letters home when
he was bored, he was briefly imprisoned on
suspicion of being an enemy spy
-Remained in France after the war painting and
writing poetry
-Who Knows if the Moons

Answer 18

E.E. Cummings

Question 19

-1830-1886
-Lived in Amherst, Massachusetts
-She became a recluse in her mid-30’s
-Only published 7 poems in her life
-After she died, her sister found 1,772 poems
-They were all written on scraps of paper
-Other than that we don’t know a lot about her
later life
-I Stepped from Plank to Plank

Answer 19

Emily Dickinson