Thursday 2 April 2009

Quiz time

I came across this quiz at the highly addictive website sporcle, and gave it a go. I even managed to get 20 out of 20, after some pondering, but what's more interesting than the quiz itself is the page showing you what percentage of people got each answer right (you have to complete the quiz first before it will let you go there). The results, I thought, were pretty surprising. Some of the poets I'd have thought of as better known were not identified, while one or two more obscure ones were apparently easily spotted.

The reason, I think, is probably the difference between school curriculums on either side of the Atlantic, but it's food for thought, and I suspect highlights how any poetic 'canon' is very much specific to the time and place of its making.

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