Can You Fill in the Missing Words in These Famous British Poems?

By: Zoe Samuel
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Can You Fill in the Missing Words in These Famous British Poems?
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About This Quiz

No man is an island. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Halfway up the stairs is a stair where I sit. When the boys come back they will not be the same...

All of these are lines from some of the most famous works by some of the most famous poets in British history. Whether Scottish, Welsh, English, Northern Irish or from the various outlying islands, poets have been using the language of Shakespeare to create beautiful work since the beginning of British history and the English language. This came into being in a recognizable form as early as the Roman period, and then despite the name, began to truly flourish during the Dark Ages. There were a great many Anglo-Saxon poems, from Beowulf to Dream of the Rood, to Seafarer, that were recited by minstrels and written down on vellum or parchment. After them came the Middle English poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer and his contemporaries.

Once the Renaissance got underway, the English language was still not standardized, but as a great many people became literate, they began to use it in new and exciting ways. This led to William Shakespeare, widely held up as one of the greatest writers in all of human history, and contemporaries such as the Metaphysical poets. Dr. Johnson and the other dictionary writers (many of them poets) then standardized Modern English, and as the Industrial Age brought about the Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. More and more women had access to literature at this point, and had a chance to have their work seen. This leads us to our modern writers such as Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Jamaican-born Benjamin Zephaniah.

Truly knowing British culture means knowing them all! How many do you know by heart?

I am ____ dog at Kew / Pray tell me sir, whose dog are you?
His Highness'
The princess'
The equerry's
The butler's
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is one of Alexander Pope's shortest poems, seen here in its entirety. It was engraved on the collar of a puppy given to his friend, the Prince of Wales.

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April is the ____ month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land...
Shortest
Wettest
Nicest
Cruellest
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from T. S. Eliot's poem, "The Wasteland".

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That is no country for old men. The young / In one another's arms, the birds in the ____....
Sky
Trees
Cages
Fields
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from "Sailing to Byzantium" by W. B. Yeats.

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Stop all the ____, cut off the telephone / Prevent the dog from barking with that juicy bone...
Smiles
Walks
Laughter
Clocks
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from W. H. Auden's poem "Stop All the Clocks", written in honor of his dead lover.

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What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy ____ symmetry?
Dreadful
Fearful
Lusty
Gorgeous
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from William Blake's poem, "Tyger", an ode to the beauty of tigers.

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...the Shepherdesses Charms, / Whose soft bewitching ____, / Had Damn'd him to the Hell of Impotence.
Eyes
Influence
Thoughts
Laugh
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from "The Disappointment" by 17th century poet Aphra Behn.

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Corinna wakes, a dreadful sight! / Behold the ruins of the ____!
Light
Fight
Fright
Night
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Jonathan Swift's very angry poem "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" about a woman who takes off her makeup, then her face, and so on.

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Take some Picts, Celts and Silures / And let them settle, / Then overrun them with Roman ____...
Centurions
Soldiers
Invaders
Conquerors
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah's poem "The British", an ode to the melting pot of British culture.

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Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, / Great ____ of the Puddin' race!
Leader
Duchess
Chieftain
Hero
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Scottish poet Rabbie Burns' poem, "Address to a Haggis". It's a very long poem about a meaty Scottish dish.

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Do not go gentle into that good night. / ____, ____, against the dying of the light
Rage, rage
Rage, burn
Burn, seethe
Fight, scream
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Dylan Thomas' villanelle, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" about fighting against a premature or undeserved death.

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What is't that ails young Harry Gill? / That _____ his teeth they chatter....
Evermore
Constantly
Sometimes
All the time
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from William Wordsworth's comedy poem "Goody Blake and Harry Gill" about a mean rich man who is cruel to an old widow and becomes cursed to never be warm again.

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We make more fuss of ballads than of _____....
Pumpkins
Ditties
Blueprints
Castles
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Wendy Cope's poem "Engineers' Corner", about how there is no monument to engineers in Westminster Abbey, though there is one for poets.

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When by thy scorn, O ____, I am dead / And that thou think'st thee free...
Meanie
Murd'ress
Succubus
Violet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from John Donne's creepy poem "The Apparition", about a man who blames a woman for rejecting him and thus resulting in his death, and threatens to stalk her from beyond the grave.

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Had we but world enough, and time / This ____ lady, were no crime
Coyness
Game
Hardness
Cruelty
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

These are the opening lines of Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress"

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Dear friends, we surely all agree / There's almost nothing ____ to see
New
There
Worse
Nicer
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Roald Dahl's poem, "Dear Friends, We Surely All Agree", about the evils of chewing gum.

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Come friendly bombs, and fall on ____! It isn't fit for humans now.
Slough
Plough
Glough
Bough
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Slough is a town in England that frankly, isn't very nice. Poet John Betjeman wrote his poem "Slough" about it.

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And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword, / Ready to do what a ____ can
Man
Hero
Warrior
Fool
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from "Napoleon III In Italy" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

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All the pheasants ever ___ / Won't repay for one man dead
Bred
Born
Fed
Led
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Mark Beaufoy's poem "A Father's Advice", written to his son to encourage gun safety.

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If you can wait and not be tired by waiting / Or being lied about, don’t deal in ____
Hate
Lies
Anger
Untruth
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If", which is about how to be a man.

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I'm not the first or the last to stand on a hillock / Watching the man she married prove to the world he's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A ____
Twit
Numpty
Chump
Pillock
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is the entirety of the poem "Mrs. Icarus" by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. It's part of her book "The World's Wife" in which women in the lives of famous men are given the voice to comment on their situation.

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In ____ did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome decree...
Xanadu
Karakorum
Beijing
Peking
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is the opening line of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem "Kubla Khan".

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Something there is that doesn't love a _____
House
Pie
Wall
Man
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Robert Frost's poem "Mending Walls" which is about how boundaries affect people's ability to get on with each other.

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Remember me when I am gone away / Gone far away into the ____ land...
Other
Distant
Heavenly
Silent
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is the opening line of Christina Rossetti's famous poem, "Remember", that is often read at British funerals.

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I hate the dreadful ____ behind the little wood...
Cottage
Highway
Castle
Hollow
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is the opening line of George Gordon, Lord Byron's utterly weird monodrama, "Maud".

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Out flew the web and floated wide / The mirror ____ from side to side!
Cracked
Swung
Lurched
Shook
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous epic poem, "The Lady of Shalott".

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Then all at once I saw a cloud / A host of golden _____
Daffodils
Eggs
Sun
Rays
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from William Wordsworth's Romantic poem, "Daffodils".

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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more _____
Flowery
Warm
Heavenly
Temperate
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This hails from probably the most famous sonnet of William Shakespeare, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

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Fools rush in where ____ fear to tread!
Smart people
Brainiacs
Angels
Wise men
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This comes from Alexander Pope's poem "Essay on Criticism", which is about how small time critics think they are more important than they are!

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Here is no home, here is but ____ / Forth, pilgrim, forth!
Eggs
Hotels
Prosperity
Wilderness
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This comes from Geoffrey Chaucer's poem "Good Counsel".

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The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a ____ of hell, a hell of ___...
Heaven
Purgatory
Cell
Prison
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This comes from John Milton's great poem "Paradise Lost", which he wrote to be the English language equivalent of epics like Homer's Odyssey.

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____ my heart, three-person'd God, for you / As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend
Cover
Batter
Fill
Cuddle
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This comes from the metaphysical poet John Donne, whose sonnet "Batter my heart" begins with these lines.

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You would not tell with such high ____ / To children ardent for some desperate glory....
Praise
Hope
Love
Zest
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is Wilfred Owens, the World War I poet, and hails from his powerful poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est", which means "it is sweet and proper".

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I think it is a ____ but I'm not quite certain / Nanny isn't certain too
Pixie
Troll
Brownie
Ghost
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is from A. A. Milne and begins "In the corner of the bedroom is a great big curtain / Someone lives behind it but I don't know who!" Brownies are a little pixie-like creature that apparently live behind curtains.

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La belle dame sans merci hath thee in ____!
Bed
Thrall
Power
Chains
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John Keats' poem tells us that "La belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall!"

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James ____ Morrison _____ Weatherby George Dupree...
James, Morrison
Frank, Rigby
John, Hamilton
Jack, Egerton
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In "Disobedience" by A. A. Milne, we learn that "James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree, took good care of his mother, though he was only three."

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