Ultimate Poetry Questions and Answers

From Shakespearean sonnets to Nobel laureates, we’ve put enough tricky poetry questions and answers to test even the brightest of bards!

poetry quiz

Few forms of writing have the ability to capture and express raw emotion in the many ways that poetry does. With that said, we’ve put together some poetry questions and answers to test your knowledge of history’s most beloved bards!

Whether you’re wild about Wordsworth or a poet in your own right, you’ll find plenty here to get you thinking! On that note, expect a question or two on some of the techniques employed in the world’s most famous works!

Do you know how many lines make up a sonnet, or how many Shakespeare produced in his lifetime?

Can you recall which war ‘The Iliad’ walks us through the story of, or where Wordsworth found the inspiration for his most famous poem?

poetry quiz questions and answers
How much do you know about poetry?

Are you familiar with the poem whose masterpiece took us on a journey through Hell itself? Can you remember which instrument the owl serenaded the pussy-cat with in one of Lear’s most famous poems?

Today’s poetry quiz will touch on all of the above and more, so you’d best pop those thinking caps on! Keep on scrolling and show us what you’ve got – we’re confident you’ll do us poetic justice!

If our poetry questions and answers made you want to stretch your literary legs a little more, see how you do with our book trivia questions and our quiz about William Shakespeare.

poetry questions
It’s time to put your poetry trivia to the test

Poetry Questions and Answers

1. 
'The Waste Land' is a famous and well-regarded poem, but which of the following wrote it?

2. 
How many lines make up a sonnet?

3. 
Which of the following terms describes poetic language designed to appeal to the reader's senses?

4. 
Which Italian poet's masterpiece described a journey through the depths of Hell?

5. 
A two-line rhyming stanza is called a ________?

6. 
In one of Edward Lear's most memorable poems, the owl plays which instrument to serenade the pussy-cat?

7. 
What does the term 'foot' mean in poetry?

8. 
Which literary technique involves giving human characteristics to inanimate objects?

9. 
William Wordsworth's 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' was inspired by which flower?

10. 
What is the correct term for poetry written without any rhyme, rhythm or form?

11. 
How many sonnets did William Shakespeare produce in his lifetime?

12. 
Which poet famously used a lot of dashes throughout their work?

13. 
Which of the following poets spoke at President Biden's inauguration ceremony?

14. 
'The Iliad' tells the story of which war?

15. 
The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to which poet in 1901?

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questions about poetry
Were you like Shakespeare, or like Fakespeare?

How’d you fare with today’s poetry quiz? Don’t dwell on the questions that tripped you up – as Sophocles himself once said, “a man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more!”

If you enjoyed today’s poetic puzzlers, we’ve plenty more quizzes to pique your interest. Take a look around the site and pit your wits against whichever quiz catches your eye next!

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