And they asked me how I did it, and I gave 'em the Scripture text

[venta]

Some time ago, I posted a poetry quiz on here. Then forgot to post the answers. The winner, with an impressive 9 1/2 out of 10 was bopeepsheep. She could really have had 10, but I was quite harsh with her answer about the Big Steamers. Just to stop her getting too cocky ;)

shui_long came in as runner up, and we have an honourable mention for dr_doug whose answers made me

Comments

[bopeepsheep]

I may be one of the only respondents to have read A Child's Garden Of Verses aloud, in toto and more than once, in the last three years. Which helps a good deal when it comes to remembering.

"Something about muffins" isn't enough for the full mark? No, probably not.

[huskyteer]

Stately Spanish galleon! Of course! (We were given this one as a reading comprehension when I was at prep school.)

I must have read Escape at Bedtime as I know I had A Child's Garden of Verses - I guess others stuck in my mind more, like Bed In Summer.

(Coincidentally, I couldn't get to sleep last night and was reciting all the epic poetry I knew to myself - Invictus and Vitae Lampada amongst others.)

[venta]

Ironically - unlike everyone else, I'm not sure I have read A Child's Garden of Verses. Although I'm terrible at remembering the names of anthologies - maybe it's the pale blue one with Pegasus on the front? The only two poems I can specifically remember from that book are both Stevenson, so perhaps it is.

[exspelunca]

That's why we had to learn so much by heart at school - they knew we'd need it on sleepless nights and in queues.

[phlebas]

I never got round to entering! #2 was the only one I knew without looking anything up though. A couple of the others were familiar but not familiar enough.

[ylla]

I've always known about the ivory, apes and peacocks, and never had a clue where it comes from.
The last one was the only other one which was vaguely familiar, although I have read A Child's Garden of Verses

[ylla]

It would be a funny English road which got to Bannockburn, although I suppose they had to get there somehow (the A74, if the song about the midges is too be believed) :)

Do you know another poem about England before the Romans came? Or possibly only the Normans, since it's more likely about the Saxons than the Celts.
The idea has been haunting the edges of my mind since I read that first line, but I don't really know where to start looking.

[undyingking]

A couple of the ones I missed were more familiar once I'd seen the answers. I've read shockingly little poetry in recent decades... and reread scarcely any, sadly.