Quiz of the Day
Poetry & Haiku
Friday, 17 April 2026
International Haiku Poetry Day — famous poets, literary forms, word play
1. How many syllables does a traditional haiku have in total?
- 17
- 21
- 14
- 10
A traditional haiku follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern across three lines. In Japanese, they're called 'on' (sound units) rather than syllables, which don't map perfectly to English.
2. Who is considered the greatest master of haiku poetry?
- Matsuo Bashō
- Li Bai
- Rumi
- Rabindranath Tagore
Bashō (1644–1694) elevated haiku from a lighthearted party game into a serious art form. His most famous haiku about a frog jumping into a pond is probably the most analysed poem in Japanese literature.
3. What is a sonnet?
- A 14-line poem
- A 10-line poem
- A poem with no fixed length
- A 20-line poem
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, each with 14 lines in iambic pentameter. Sonnet 18 ('Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?') is one of the most quoted poems in the English language.
4. Which poet wrote 'The Road Not Taken'?
- Emily Dickinson
- Walt Whitman
- T.S. Eliot
- Robert Frost
Despite being quoted as an inspirational poem about individualism, Frost wrote it as a gentle joke about his indecisive friend Edward Thomas. The irony is that most people miss the irony.
5. What poetic device involves the repetition of initial consonant sounds?
- Onomatopoeia
- Assonance
- Alliteration
- Metaphor
Alliteration was the primary structural device in Old English poetry (like Beowulf) before rhyme became popular. Tongue twisters like 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers' are extreme examples.
6. Which Romantic poet wrote 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' about daffodils?
- Lord Byron
- William Wordsworth
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- John Keats
Wordsworth's sister Dorothy first described the daffodils in her journal. William borrowed heavily from her account, and Dorothy never received credit during their lifetimes.
7. A limerick typically has how many lines?
- 5
- 3
- 4
- 6
Limericks follow an AABBA rhyme scheme and are named after the Irish city of Limerick. Edward Lear popularised them in the 1840s, though the form existed before him.
8. Which American poet is known for writing almost 1,800 poems but publishing fewer than a dozen during her lifetime?
- Maya Angelou
- Emily Dickinson
- Sylvia Plath
- Anne Sexton
Dickinson lived as a recluse in Amherst, Massachusetts, writing on scraps of paper and envelopes. Her sister discovered the massive collection after Emily's death in 1886.
9. In Japanese tradition, what season word (kigo) must a haiku contain?
- A colour reference
- A time of day reference
- A weather reference
- A seasonal reference
Japanese haiku dictionaries list thousands of seasonal words: 'cherry blossoms' for spring, 'cicada' for summer, 'moon' for autumn, and 'snow' for winter. Choosing the right kigo is considered an art in itself.
10. Who wrote the epic poem 'The Odyssey'?
- Ovid
- Homer
- Virgil
- Sophocles
The Odyssey, composed around 700 BC, tells of Odysseus's 10-year journey home from Troy. Whether Homer was a single person or a name for a tradition of oral poets is still debated by scholars.
11. What is the term for a poem that mourns the death of a person?
- Epic
- Ode
- Elegy
- Ballad
One of the most famous elegies is W.H. Auden's 'Funeral Blues' ('Stop all the clocks'), which gained renewed popularity after being read in the 1994 film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.
12. Which poet became the first African American woman to recite a poem at a US presidential inauguration?
- Amanda Gorman
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- Maya Angelou
- Nikki Giovanni
Angelou recited 'On the Pulse of Morning' at Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration. In 2021, Amanda Gorman (age 22) became the youngest inaugural poet with 'The Hill We Climb'.
13. What is 'free verse' poetry?
- Poetry written by amateurs
- Poetry without a regular metre or rhyme scheme
- Poetry written for free
- Poetry with exactly 10 syllables per line
Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' (1855) helped pioneer free verse in English. T.S. Eliot later quipped that 'no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job' — meaning craft is still essential.
14. Which country hosts an annual 'Poetry Slam' World Cup?
- United States
- Germany
- France
- Japan
The Coupe du Monde de Slam de Poésie has been held in Paris since 2003. Slam poetry originated in Chicago in the 1980s when Marc Kelly Smith started competitive poetry readings in a jazz club.
15. What type of poem tells a story and was traditionally set to music?
- Ballad
- Limerick
- Sonnet
- Haiku
Ballads were the pop songs of the medieval world — passed down orally for centuries before being written down. 'Greensleeves', often attributed to Henry VIII, is one of the most enduring English ballads.