Can you name the these poems from their opening lines?

Line	Poem	Author
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day...		Ernest Lawrence Thayer
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves...		Lewis Carroll
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...		Edgar Allan Poe
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste...		John Milton
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying...		Robert Herrick
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone...		W. H. Auden
Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky...		T. S. Eliot
Half a league, half a league, half a league onwards...		Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I met a traveller from an ancient land who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone...		Percy Bysshe Shelley
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...		Robert Frost
The rain set early in tonight, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite...		Robert Browning
A free bird leaps on the back Of the wind and floats downstream...		Maya Angelou
The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms...		Ezra Pound
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume...		Walt Whitman
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate...		William Shakespeare
He is stark mad, who ever says, That he hath been in love an hour...		John Donne

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There are 39 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

Opening Lines Poems Quiz

by Derek

Created May 20, 2009 in Literature
Featured May 20, 2009
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	JamesJamesClub:	May 20th, 2009 at 16:55 GMT		22 points
	I knew who a lot of these were by but not their proper name. Any chance the Authors can be guessable too?

	Joe_Ball:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:06 GMT		8 points
	Wanting the number for the Shakespeare one is a little harsh, I was hoping 'Sonnet' would be acceptable. Funeral Blues is a strange choice in that it is listed in many collections of Auden's work with the first line as its title. I thought this was a good quiz though, really gets you thinking.

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	onetheta:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:21 GMT		-1 points
	Dead Poets Society members only need apply

	dashoff:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:23 GMT		1 point
	I'm with jamesjamesclub. Make the authors guessable. I can recite most of these poems, and I know who wrote them, but the names are eluding me!

	BrettCaudill:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:35 GMT		3 points
	i knew the "summer's day" one was "sonnet some number", so i just guessed random numbers without getting the right one....lazy shakespeare and your numbered poems!

	Dubliner :	May 20th, 2009 at 17:42 GMT		2 points
	Not into poetry but I did get the Charge of the Light Brigade which was also a brilliant movie starring British actor Trevor Howard, several thousand bloodthirsty Russians , and the usual inept bunch of aged Brit Generals some of whom were wondering where were the French enemies (that was in the days before the Entente Cordiale ) 'Ahem the enemy is Russian today 'Sir 'Where are the French rushing to ' replies hard of hearing Duke of Gloucester the sodding oul impostor etc etc ;)

	chris1889:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:52 GMT		-2 points
	anyone else get 'the raven' thanks to the simpsons episode?

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	SammyG:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:55 GMT		17 points
	I always learned Shakespeare as Sonnet XVIII which think should be accepted.

	Rose:	May 20th, 2009 at 17:58 GMT		1 point
	I have an english degree. And after trying Sonnet #32, 20, 22, 36, and 21, I gave up. hardly anyone knows that. Make the authors guessable, please.

	Tank:	May 20th, 2009 at 18:01 GMT		2 points
	@jamesjamesclub: I agree, some of them I knew by the poet's name, but not by the title of the poem itself.

	jrose:	May 20th, 2009 at 19:16 GMT		0 points
	heh, only got the raven and jabberwocky. I agree with the previous comments; would've gotten more if authors worked

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	okenter:	May 20th, 2009 at 19:36 GMT		0 points
	Stupid Proofrock and his one-letter first name (grumble).

	stacey:	May 20th, 2009 at 19:44 GMT		-1 points
	oh man, in first year i stared at Ozymandias for days knowing it'd be on the final and picking up nothing, but at least i still recognize it a few years later.

	jd1z:	May 20th, 2009 at 19:50 GMT		3 points
	I disagree, I believe the titles are important, and reflect the viewpoint of the whole story. If Frost's poem was titled, "The Road Taken" the message would be completely different.

	Erika:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:08 GMT		-4 points
	i dont read poetry and i only got one... but there is no joy in mudville, mighty Casey has struck out.

	Sporcrates:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:19 GMT		0 points
	No! It's a Literature quiz!

	Lizelle:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:26 GMT		-3 points
	I'm all for poetry quizzes, but I agree that being able to guess authors would make it a lot easier... Somehow I remembered Shakespeare's sonnet number but I think knowing the poet is more important than the title especially given that some of these aren't their most famous works.

	DerKomissar:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:34 GMT		0 points
	I will admit that I tried Lynyrd Skynyrd for #3.

	guyleguy:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:39 GMT		-3 points
	Ozymandias, GOAT poem.

	Skydog:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:39 GMT		-4 points
	@Chris, If you really needed the Simpson's for a Poe Poem you are sad and deprived from literature.

	livfred:	May 20th, 2009 at 20:40 GMT		1 point
	great quiz! guessing just the authors would make it easier, but is easy the point? for the shakespeare one, instead of guessing random numbers, i just started at 1 and worked my way forward! i'm glad the number wasn't too crazy high!

	melissa:	May 20th, 2009 at 21:06 GMT		3 points
	Agh - could have sworn the Frost poem was "The Road Less Travelled" -- tried all sorts of poetic permutations of "Travelled" (like "Travel'd", "Travell'd", etc.) -- only to be thwacked with "The Road Not Taken." Well, now I know.

	paperthinarson:	May 20th, 2009 at 21:11 GMT		5 points
	That's not the right quote for Ozymandias. It's supposed to be, "I met a traveller from an ANTIQUE land..." not ANCIENT!

	JohnJF:	May 20th, 2009 at 22:07 GMT		0 points
	As did I, DerKomissar. I mean, it was worth a shot, I guess.

	debbiedoesnothin:	May 20th, 2009 at 22:58 GMT		-4 points
	Sorry, not a fan of this quiz. I knew all the authors and the approximate titles but I only got 3 titles exactly right. I agree with everyone who said give credit for the authors - that way, there'd be 32 answers to get. Looking at the stats and the comments, even poetry lovers had a very hard time with this one.

	Jaksiel:	May 20th, 2009 at 23:57 GMT		-2 points
	I do not agree with giving credit for the authors. THat would make this quiz far too easy.

	debbiedoesnothin:	May 21st, 2009 at 02:42 GMT		4 points
	@jaksiel - I'm talking about making the quiz so you get one point for the title and one point for the author. So even if you know all the authors, you only got 16 out of 32 for the quiz.

	manxman:	May 21st, 2009 at 13:05 GMT		0 points
	Whoops! Picked the wrong quiz this time..all I got was W H Auden's Funeral Blues. I recognised several first lines...but could I put a title to them....could I heck!..Off to find something,... well, a little easier!

	cherylamanda:	May 22nd, 2009 at 06:45 GMT		2 points
	For once my literature major has been good for something! Too bad I can't make a living taking Sporcle quizzes!

	cocky:	May 22nd, 2009 at 20:47 GMT		1 point
	I also thought Frost's poem was The Road Less Traveled, which is the final line. Actually, The road Taken would be a better title, as the one he took made all the differance. As a compromise for poems vs. authors, how about having to guess all of them seperately, meaning you'd need 32 answers to complete the quiz.

	jaymc:	May 26th, 2009 at 20:38 GMT		3 points
	Tried every Roman numeral from I to L for "Sonnet ___." Didn't think to use regular old Arabic numbers.

	DRB7393:	Feb 15th, 2010 at 14:33 GMT		0 points
	I thought a good one would be "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes. It's a great poem that can be found in the beginning of the play "A Raisin in the Sun", but thats just my opinion.

	dontmindme:	Mar 10th, 2010 at 08:07 GMT		2 points
	The Herrick drove me crazy. I thought the last bit was "to make the most of time," so I tried "To Virgins, To Make the Most of Time," "To Young Virgins, To Make the Most of Time," "To the Virgins, to Make the Most of Time," etc. With the Shakespeare, I just kept plugging in numbers starting with 4; I knew it was early in the sonnet cycle.

	chikka2:	Sep 7th, 2010 at 20:12 GMT		3 points
	I confess to owing the Auden answer to "Four Weddings and a Funeral"

	packsoldier:	Oct 9th, 2011 at 03:29 GMT		1 point
	18th Sonnet doesn't work?

	superpenguin:	Dec 13th, 2011 at 23:48 GMT		1 point
	I think it is important for you to know that I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the poem, was written by Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Maya Angelou wrote an autobiographical book by the same name, but she did not write the poem.