Tennyson Bi-Centenary 2009

TENNYSON QUIZ

1. In which year was Alfred Tennyson born?

2. Where was he born?

3. At which Cambridge college was Alfred Tennyson an undergraduate?

4. Tennyson’s first published volume of poems was Poems by Two Brothers in 1827. Apart from Alfred, who were the brothers (there were 3 altogether)?

5. For which poem did Alfred Tennyson win the Chancellor’s Medal whilst at Cambridge?

6. Alfred and his Cambridge friends belonged to a debating society. What was it called?

7. In 1850 Alfred married Emily Sellwood of Horncastle. Where did the ceremony take place?

8. Who did Alfred Tennyson succeed as Poet Laureate in 1850?

9. What is the name of the series of poems, published in 1850, written on the death of Tennyson’s friend, Arthur Hallam?

10. To which war is the poem The Charge of the Light Brigade related?

11. Alfred and Emily had two sons. What were their names?

12. Which series of poems tells the story of King Arthur?

13. Which creature “…clasps the crag with crooked hands…”?

14. What is the name of the blank-verse drama written by Tennyson when he was 14 (though not published until 1930)?

15. What is the name of the house on the Isle of Wight where Tennyson and his family lived from 1853?

16. Which poem, written during a crossing of the Solent, is published as the last poem in most editions of Tennyson’s work?

17. Who was the sculptor of the statue of Alfred Tennyson in the grounds of Lincoln cathedral?

18. Which verse is inscribed on the plinth of the statue?

19. What is the name of the house on the Surrey/Sussex border, built by Alfred Tennyson in the 1860s?

20. Alfred Tennyson died in 1892. Where is he buried?

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Answers by email to slha@lincolnshirepast.org.uk by 31 August 2009

The winning entry will receive a book about Tennyson and a CD of Tennyson dialect poems.