Quiz Bowl Poetry/Poets

The Flowers of Evil, Charles Baudelaire

A volume of French poetry first published in 1857. Consists of Spleen and Ideal, Wine, Revolt, A Voyage to Cythera, Death, and Parisian Scenes. The author of this volume also translated Poe poems to French. he posthumous edition of this work included a poem dedicated to Theodore de Banville. One poem in this collection demonstrates synaesthesia by comparing perfumes to the sound of oboes. That poem, "Correspondences," appears in the same section as "The Sick Muse" and "The Albatross." It includes sections entitled "Wine," "Revolt," and "Death," as well as "Spleen and Ideal." The preface to this work addresses the reader as "Hypocrite reader, my likeness, my brother!"

The Drunken Boat, Arthur Rimbaud

Written in 1871. Describes the drifting and sinking of a boat lost at sea. Inspired from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Consists of 25 alexandrine( a syllabic poetic meter of 12 syllables with a medial caesura dividing the line into 2 hemistichs(1/2 lines) of 6 syllables) quatrains with a abab rhyme scheme. Written from the boat's POV. The boat fills with water and sinks through the sea. The boat's mounting achievement is seen when the poem reads "Is it in these bottomless nights that you sleep and exile yourself/ a million golden birds, o future strength).

A Season in Hell, Arthur Rimbaud

The only work that was published by this author himself. An autobiographical work that describes his trip through hell as a poet. The Introduction refers to the happier times of his childhood, giving rise to his "book of the damned". Bad Blood goes back to his peasant stock and refers to conflicts that evoke the Paris Commune of 1871. Night in Hell talks about his death of world weariness. The Deleria reveals the secrets of his poetry. The Impossible recognizes that others consider his dreams impossible. Lightning acknowledges that he can glimpse the light of everyday life even though he missed out on poetic heaven. Morning talks about him listening to music made by nations and rivers as they move onward.

Illuminations, Rimbaud

An incomplete suite of prose poems published under this title because of Paul Verlaine, this poet's former lover.

The Afternoon of a Faun, Stephane Mllarme

Describes the sensual experiences of a faun who has just woken up from his afternoon sleep and discusses his encounters with several nymphs during the morning. Contains a prelude by Debussy

La Vita Nuova, Dante

Contains 42 brief chapters with commentaries on 25 sonnets, 1 ballata(AbbaA structure. A is a ripresa),and 4 canzoni. The commentaries explain each poem, placing them within the context of his life. The chapters consist of 3 parts: semi-autobiographical narrative, a lyric that resulted, and a brief outline of the lyric. The poems recount the poet's love of Beatrice.

Canzoniere, Petrarch

A collection of poems that focus on the poet's love for Laura in the Church of Sainte Claire in Avignon. Main purpose is to praise Laura and establish his form of love, which is desired yet painful. Laura turned down all of Petrarch's advances and died and met Petrarch on Good Friday.

Trionfi, Petrarch

Evokes the Roman ceremony of triumph, where victorious generals and their armies were led in procession by the captives and spoils they had taken in war.

To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell

A Cavalier poem, a type of poetry that came from adherents to King Charles I during the English Civil War. The speaker starts by addressing a woman who has been slow to respond to his romantic advances. In the first stanza, he describes how he wants to court her. In the second stanza, he hates how short human life is. In the last stanza, the speaker urges the woman to requite his efforts. This poem references the river in which the poet's father drowned, a stream flowing through the poet's hometown of Hull. The poet notes that his echoing song will not sound in the addressee's marble vault, then describes the ultimate triumph of the worms. The poet speaks of a steadfastness lasting from "ten years before the Flood...Till the conversion of the Jews" before proposing to "tear our pleasures with rough strife / thorough the iron gates of life," prompted by the sound of "Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near." Written in iambic tetrameter.

De Viris Illustribus, Petrarch

An unfinished collection of biographies. Composed of Liber I and Liber II. Liber I is filled with 36 biographies of the poet's subjects starting with Romulus and ending with Trajan. Liber II is 12 biographies starting with the first person in the bible.

Africa, Petrarch

An epic poem in Latin hexameters. Tells the story of the 2nd Punic War, in which the Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy, but Roman forces were eventually victorious after an invasion of North Africa led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the epic poem's hero.

Der Erlkonig, Goethe

Depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, a kind of demon or king of the fairies. An anxious boy is carried at night by his father on horseback. The opening line(Who rides there so late through the nigh dark and drear?) talks about time being unusually late and the weather being inclement for travel. As the poem unfolds, the son claims to see the being, making the child go insane. The being attempts to lure the child into joining him and then threatens to take him by force. The boy cries and his father has to ride faster to the Hof, where the child is dead.

Roman Elegies, Goethe

A cycle of 24 poems that reflect the poet's Italian Journey from 1786-1788 and celebrates the sensuality and vigor of Italian and Classical culture. A loving tribute to Christiane Vulpis, his companion.

Letters to a Young Poet, Maria Rilke

A collection of 10 letters to Franz Xaver Kappus, a 19-year-old officer cadet at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. In the first letter, the poet respectfully declines to review or criticize Kappus' poetry, advising the younger Kappus that "Nobody can advise you and help you, nobody. There is only one way. Go into yourself". He then proceeds to advise Kappus on how a poet should feel, love, and seek truth in trying to understand and experience the world around him.

Duino Elegies, Maria Rilke

A collection of 10 elegies that were dedicated to Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis. They were incomplete due to Rilke's severe depression. The first elegy asks "Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the hierarchies of angels?". Intensely religious, mystical poems that weigh beauty and existential suffering. One part of this work begins with a saying of the Incomprehensible One, "The creature gazes into openness with all its eyes. But our eyes are as if they were reversed." This series ends "And we, who think of ascending joy, would feel the emotion, that almost dismays us, when a joyful thing falls." The second part of this poetic work begins "every angel is terror." In the first section, the speaker asks his addressee, "Have you remembered Gaspara Stampa sufficiently yet?" This set of poems was written in the Adriatic castle of Princess von Thurn und Taxis, and begins "Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic Orders?"

Sonnets to Orpheus, Maria Rilke

A cycle of 55 sonnets

Do not go gentle into that good night, Dylan Thomas

In the form of a villanele, a 19 line poem with 5 tercets and a quatrain. The most famous work by this welsh poet. Dedicated to the poet's father. Encourages the dying to fight bravely against death. Thematically, it embraces a spirit of Promethean rebellion against the inevitable, telling of "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay," and "Wild men, who caught and sang the sun in flight/ Then learned, too late, and grieved it on its way."

Gitanjai, Tagore

Poet wrote in Bengali and founded Visra-Bharate University. A reflection of this poet's consciousness. Most of these songs are written as conversations between the poet and God. Years wrote a preface to it.

Jana Gana Mana, Tagore

The India national anthem

Amar Shonar Bangla, Tagore

The Bangladesh national anthem

Desolacion, Mistral

The poet communicates her inner sentiment reflected in each of the poems. The sections included life, school, children, pain, and nature. In the Chilean edition, she added Prose and Prose School and Stories.

Sonnets of death, Mistral

Inspired by the suicide of the poet's former lover, Romelio Ureta, in which she claims for his love, argues jealousy, and discusses their reunion after their deaths. Claimed by many to mark the beginning of modern poetry in Chilean literature.

Ternura, Mistral

Dedicated to his mother and half-sister Emelina. Lullabies consists of 33 poems that consist of loving dialogue between mother and son. Rounds contains 20 poems about kindness and the reason for selflessness. La Desvariadora has 8 poems about delirium, hallucination, and wise madness. Juguertas I has 5 poems of children's language and child's rhythm. Account-world talks about the origins of Mistral's love for storytelling.

Our America, Marti

A work of Latin America nationalism. Argues for the rejection of European and United States cultural values in the forging of racially harmonious and politically stable Latin American nations.

Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines, Neruda

The theme of distance is introduced in the opening line. The poet's overwhelming sorrow over a lost lover has prevented him from writing about their relationship and its demise.

Don't Go Far Off, Neruda

A 4 stanza poem separated into 2 tercets and 2 quatrains. Contains a speaker's plea that his lover not abandon him to live out the rest of his life alone. Poem begins with the speaker asking his lover not to go far off from where he is. He then talks about what would happen if his lover did. By the end of the poem, he informs his listener he will wander the earth seeking them out if they are separated.

When I Die, Neruda

The speaker talks about wanting his spouse to remember him after he passes, but doesn't want her to mourn his loss so much that she doesn't continue living her life. This poet's first wife didn't speak Spanish.

Here I Love You, Neruda

Expresses the sadness of separation. The speaker is in this world and his beloved is far away in the world beyond mortal reach. The speaker loves his departed beloved and recalls her company.

The Road Not Taken, Frost

First poem in Mountain Interval. 4 stanzas of 5 lines. Champions the idea of following your own path. Written as a joke for Edward Thomas. Contains a sign mentioned in the last stanza.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Frost

Written in New Hampshire volume. Describes the thoughts of a lone wagon driver, pausing at night in his travel to watch snow falling in the woods. Ends with him reminding himself that, despite the loveliness of the view "I have promises to keep/and miles to go before I sleep".

After Apple-Picking, Frost

Published in North of Boston. Loose iambic pentameter. Describes a pastoral scene of NE in autumn. The narrator recalls his day spent picking apples on a ladder as he falls asleep.

Nothing Gold Can Stay, Frost

Published in New Hampshire volume. Starts by talking about the colors of spring ,saying that nature is first gold then green. Leaves start as flower buds but turn into green leaves.

Fire and Ice, Frost

In New Hampshire volume. Discusses the end of the world, likening fire to desire and ice to hate.

Acquainted with the Night, Frost

Published in West-Running Brook. A lonely speaker walks through the city at night. He observes the city lights and sounds. One of the most famous examples of an American poem written in terza rima.

Death of the Hired Man, Frost

Published in North of Boston. Concerns a conversation, over a short time period in a single evening, between a farmer(Warren) and his wife(Mary) about what to do with ex-employee Silas, who helped haymaking and left the farm after being offered pocket money and came back during winter. Warren is displeased and want him to leave. Mary wishes Warren to be kind and is warm to Silas.

Mending Wall, Frost

Opens North of Boston. Narrates a story drawn from rural NE. The narrator, a NE farmer, contacts his neighbor in the spring to rebuild the stone wall between their 2 farms. As they work, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall. He notes that "something there is that doesn't love a wall", but the neighbor replies with "Good fences make good neighbors".

Birches, Frost

In Mountain Interval. When the speaker sees a row of bent birches, he likes to think that some boy has been swinging them. He then realizes that it wasn't a boy, but the ice storms. When the truth strikes the speaker, he still prefers his imagination. When life becomes confusing, he wants to go to heaven by climbing a birch tree and coming back.

Out Out-, Frost

A single stanza poem relating the accidental death of a young boy with references to Macbeth. Written in memory of Raymond Tracy Fitzgerald. In Mountain Interval.

The Gift Outright

Poem read at 1961 JFK's inauguration. Summarizes the history of the colonization in America and the growth of love and devotion that settlers came to shower on the land.

My Lost Youth, Longfellow

A lyrical autobiographical tribute to his native city of Portland and to the boy who climbed the streets and gazed out over its harbor dreaming faraway dreams. Poem opens with a well known description of Portland. The second stanza emphasizes the city's location on a peninsula surrounded by a sea dotted with islands. Romanticism is illustrated in "black wharves", "Spanish sailors", "mystery of ships" in the 3 stanza. Famous refrain: "A boy's will is the wind's will,/ and the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts". This refrain is the inspiration for the title of Frost's collection "A Boy's Will".

13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Stevens

The poet imagines a bird in various settings. Each of the sections have the word "blackbird" in it. The poem follows a circular pattern, starting in the snowy mountains in the first section, moving towards human society in the middle, and ending in a sparse, snowy environment. One character in this poem fearfully mistakes the shadow of his "glass coach" for this poem's central subject, who "walks around the feet / of women around you". The speaker is caught between "the beauty of inflections", "the beauty of innuendoes", the central subject's whistle, and "just after". This poem asserts that "a man and a woman and [the title creature] are one" and opens with the observation that "among twenty snowy mountains, / the only moving thing / was the eye of" the title animal.

The Rape of the Lock, Pope

The Waste Land, Eliot

This work notes that "Dry bones can harm no one" before a rooster crows, "Co co rico co co rico". Another section of this work describes a character who "was once handsome and tall like you" but is now "a fortnight dead", named Phlebas the Phoenician. The phrases "Unreal city" and (*) "HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME" repeat in this poem, which features sections like "What the Thunder Said" and "The Burial of the Dead". This work ends with a triple repetition of the Sanskrit word for peace, "Shantih, shantih, shantih".

Howl, Allen Ginsberg

Begins with "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness". The structure of this poem's second part is based on Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno. The end of its first section quotes Christ's last words to describe "cities [shivered] down to their last radio." Its second section asks "What Sphinx of cement and aluminum...ate up their brains and imagination," and curses the Canaanite god Moloch. Dedicated to Carl Solomon, this poem describes people hallucinating "Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war," and centers on the experiences of "angelheaded hipsters" like Herbert Huncke and Neal Cassady.

Daddy, Slyvia Plath

The title figure of this poem is initially described as "Marble-heavy, a bag full of God", but is soon referred to as a "Ghastly statue". Opening with the speaker's statement that "you do not do anymore", she compares the title figure as a Nazi, describing him as "a man in black with a Meinkampf look", and after claiming that he bit her "pretty red heart in two", she finally frees herself from his memory, concluding the poem by telling him "you bastard, I'm through".

The Idea of Order at Key West, Wallace Stevens

This poem's images include "theatrical distances, bronze shadows heaped on high horizons, mountainous atmospheres," and it describes the fixing of "emblazoned zones and fiery poles, arranging, deepening, enchanting night." At one points in this poem, the speaker recalls asking, "Whose spirit is this?...because we knew it was the spirit that we sought and knew that we should ask this often." This poem, which makes an ambiguous appeal to Ramon Fernandez, describes a figure who is "the single artificer of the world" that she creates and who "sang beyond the genius of the sea."

Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, Wordsworth

This poem mentions hedgerows which are "hardly hedgerows" but "little lines / Of sportive wood run wild," which are seen by the speaker as he sits under a "dark sycamore." Some "steep and lofty cliffs" impress upon the poet "thoughts of more deep seclusion," and he thinks that the "wreaths of smoke" might rise from "vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods." In the final section of the poem, the poet describes his "cheerful faith" that "all which we behold / Is full of blessings" to his sister Dorothy, who went with him on the walking tour that is this poem's subject.

Gitanjali, Tagore

Juan Ramón Jiménez may have coined the term "naked poetry" after translating Poem 7 from one collection by this author, which describes removing adornments from song. Many of this author's works were published in Prabasi magazine, where he himself published the works of Lalon. This author wrote that "the time has come when badges of honor make our shame glaring" in a letter to Lord Chelmsford, in which he rejected a previous knighthood after a 1919 massacre in his country. He wrote of a place "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high" and asked that "into that heaven of freedom, Father, let my country awake." W. B. Yeats wrote that he would close man's manuscripts on the bus, "lest some stranger would see how much it moved" him, in the introduction to a poetry collection by this author.

Eric and Enide, de Troyes

In Ruth Harwood Cline's translation, the prologue to this poem notes that "everyone ... must think and do all in his reach so he may rightly speak and teach." Near the beginning of this poem, the protagonist is struck in the face by an unpleasant dwarf and decides to take revenge on the knight who is travelling with the dwarf, eventually defeating him in a contest involving a sparrow hawk. The protagonist of this poem sees a row of stakes which all have heads on them except the first one, which has a horn on it. Those stakes are at the entrance to a treacherous orchard known as the Joy of the Court. The protagonist of this poem overhears his wife complaining that he has been neglecting his chivalric duties, so he drags her with him on a long journey and commands her not to speak to him, although she does so several times to warn him about imminent danger. It ends with a separate section portraying seven black men and five white men working in a chain gang by the Forks Falls highway.

Questions of Travel, Elizabeth Bishop

Divided into Elsewhere and Brazil. This poetry collection features a poem beginning; "Oh, but it is dirty!" titled "Filling Station." Another poem concerns a sandpiper running along a beach staring down at his toes "looking for something, something, something." The title poem of this collection ends when the speaker wonders, "Is it lack of imagination that makes us come to imagined places, not just stay at home? / Or could Pascal have been not entirely right" after asserting, "There are too many waterfalls here". The speaker of another poem laments "a weak mailed fist / clenched ignorant against the sky!" after watching the title creature run away while people throw fire balloons into the sky to celebrate a religious festival. This poetry collection includes a poem dedicated to Robert Lowell titled "Armadillo" while in the first poem "Arrival at Santos" is based on the poet's long sabbatical in South America. Published nineteen years after North and South.

Paradise Lost, John Milton

Intended to "justify the ways of God to man". One character in this work muses that "Space may produce new Worlds" after arguing that "Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe." A "Heav'nly MuseÂ...on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai" inspired this work whose end sees a pair of figures walk "hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow." In this work, its author describes how "these (*) eyesÂ...roll in vain / To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn." This poem's author was described as "of the Devil's party without knowing it" due to lines such as "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

Gunga Din, Rudyard Kipling

About a heroic Indian water-carrier. This poemʹs title character wears a uniform made from a "piece oʹ twisty rag." The narrator of this poem imagines taking a "swig in Hell" from the title man, who is given the order "Panee lao". This poem, which describes warfare "in Injiaʹs sunny clime," ends as the narrator admits that the title character is "a better man than I am."

The Biglow Papers, Lowell

A character in this collection loses a leg, an arm, four fingers, and an eye, and decides to use those injuries to become a politician nicknamed "Timbertoes." Another of its characters repeatedly heckles a speech given by Increase D. O'Phace. This collection mocks a hypocritical "Pious Editor's Creed," and was later expanded to include its author's poem "The Courtin'" in its second series. Its characters include the pastor of the First Church of Jaalam, as well as a soldier who complains that "ninepence a day" is "kind of low for murder" while serving under Caleb Cushing. This collection is framed as a series of poems sent to Homer Wilbur, and uses letters from Birdofredum Sawin to attack the Mexican War.

Divine Comedy, Dante

An epic poem divided into three parts that describes Dante's travels through Inferno(Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise/Heaven). The Roman poet Virgil who represents reason and classical civilization guides him through Inferno and Purgatorio. His love Beatrice who represents love and faith guides him through Paradiso. Allegorically represents the soul's journey towards God. Dante, who was at exile at the time of writing, creates a story out of his exile to explain how he came to cope with personal calamity and also to offer suggestions for the resolution of Italy's troubles. Draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of afterlife makes it one of the greatest works of world literature. Written in Italian, and helped establish the Tuscan language as the standardized Italian language. First use of terza rima, ABA BCB DED etc.

The Aenied, Virgil

Tells the story of a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Composed on dactylic hexameter. First 1/2 tells the story of his wanderings from Troy to Italy. 2nd 1/2 tells the Trojan's ultimately victorious war upon the Latins. A war breaks out in this work after the title character's son kills a deer, and the antagonist's sister Juturna disguises herself as Camers to convince an army to break a treaty. A character in this poem loses a footrace after slipping in sacrificial blood, and another character is killed for wearing the belt of Pallas, who he had previously slain. This poem begins with Juno destroying the protagonist's fleet and opens with the phrase "I sing of arms and the man." Because he was attacked by Achilles when he was tending his flocks, he organized the Dardanians to attack the Greeks. This man founded the town of Lavinium, named after his wife. He protected the body of Pandarus. Later, in battle, Diomedes broke this man's hip by throwing a stone, leading to his mother trying to rescue him. This ancestor of Romulus and Remus was the son of Venus and Anchises. Dido of Carthage killed herself when this man left her.

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, Randall Jarrell

It is accompanied by an author's note that highlights the subject's fetus like appearance, a resemblance echoed in the poem itself by the line "From my mother's sleep," and later juxtaposed with the cruel, life-threatening, reality of the situation-- "Six miles from earth" and surrounded by "black flak and nightmare fighters." First published in the 1945 collection Little Friend, Little Friend, whose title refers to a term of endearment used by bombardiers for friendly planes. Ends with a dead pilot being washed out of the plane with a hose.