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What Wild-Eyed Murderer

By Peter Meinke

We shouldn’t worship suffering: the world’s
a spinning rack where suffering indicates
all goes well we’re alive and not curled
up in the black hushhush death dictates
as its first condition: no screaming there

We crown ourselves with thorns of past
transgressions Sharp spears of deed spare
no rib of pain: around the cross crashed
common lightning usual blood Who earns
our reverence should break both cross and crutch
in the face of suffering: while the rack turns

and tightens they’ll smile at the sense of touch
Suffering’s too common to be worth
anything joy too rare to be priced
The saints we search for will embrace the earth:
what wild-eyed murderer suffers less than Christ?

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Famous-Poems-quiz

Famous Poems: 20 Multiple-Choice Questions

1 / 20

"Sonnet 29" is a famous sonnet by William Shakespeare. What is the next line of this poem after "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,"?

2 / 20

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary," - What is the next line of this poem by Edgar Allan Poe?

3 / 20

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 

And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

 

 - Who is the author of this poem?

4 / 20

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep."

 

 - What is the title of this poem?

5 / 20

"The End and the Beginning" is a famous poem by Wislawa Szymborska. What is the next line of this poem after "After every war / someone has to clean up"?

6 / 20

"I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother."

- What is the next line of this poem by Langston Hughes?

7 / 20

"I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils."

 - What is the title of this poem?

8 / 20

"Because I could not be with you, I will write across the page the words I was too afraid to speak, I was too afraid to stay, I was too afraid to leave."

 

- What is the title of this poem?

9 / 20

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;" - What is the next line of this poem by T.S. Eliot?

10 / 20

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by,"

- What is the next line of this poem by Robert Frost?

11 / 20

"I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair" is the opening line of a poem by Pablo Neruda. What is the next line of this poem?

12 / 20

"Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all."

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

13 / 20

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep." 

 

- Who is the author of this poem?

14 / 20

"i carry your heart with me" is a famous poem by E.E. Cummings. What is the next line of this poem after "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in"?

15 / 20

"A Contribution to Statistics" is a famous poem by Wislawa Szymborska. What is the next line of this poem after "Out of a hundred people"?

16 / 20

"The Odyssey" is a famous epic poem by Homer. What is the next line of this poem after "Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero"?

17 / 20

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

- Who is the author of this poem?

18 / 20

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date." 

- What is the title of this poem?

19 / 20

"Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow."

 

- What is the title of this poem?

20 / 20

"We real cool. We left school. We lurk late."

- What is the next line of this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks?

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Forms-Of-Poetry-Quiz

Forms Of Poetry: 20 Multiple-Choice Questions

1 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a poem that describes or meditates on the natural world, often using vivid imagery and sensory language?

2 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three-line stanzas, with a syllable count of 5-7-5 and a seasonal reference?

3 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a poem that tells a story through a series of quatrains, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB?

4 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter are followed by a rhyming line of iambic tetrameter?

5 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of a six-line stanza, with a rhyme scheme of A-A-B-B-C-C and a syllable count of 8-8-5-5-8-8?

6 / 20

What is the name for a poetic form consisting of 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme and meter?

7 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of two lines, with the first line asking a question and the second line providing an answer?

8 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form that uses the repetition of a single word or phrase at the end of each line, and can be as short as three lines or as long as multiple stanzas?

9 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms consists of a three-line stanza, with a syllable count of 5-7-5, but also includes a two-line stanza at the end, with a syllable count of 7-7?

10 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three-line stanzas, with the second line repeating as the last line of the previous stanza?

11 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables?

12 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form that originated in ancient Arabic poetry, consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, typically used to express love or melancholy?

13 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which each line or stanza repeats the same sequence of words, but in reverse order?

14 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which the last word of each line is repeated throughout the poem?

15 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which each line contains the same number of syllables?

16 / 20

What is the name of the poetic form in which a speaker addresses someone or something that is absent or not able to respond?

17 / 20

Which of the following is NOT a form of Japanese poetry?

18 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by three stanzas of three lines each and a final quatrain?

19 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a repeated refrain, alternating with a series of quatrains, with a final quatrain as a coda?

20 / 20

Which of the following poetic forms is characterized by a five-line stanza with a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2, and typically contains a humorous or witty twist at the end?

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