Q 1 Name a current Head of State who is also known as a poet, sociologist, author and broadcaster.
Answer: Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland
Q 2 How many lines are there in a vilanelle? Answer: 19
A villanelle (also known as villanesque) consists of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. This is probably the best known, by Dylan Thomas.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Q 3 Who wrote ‘This is the Night Mail’? Answer: W H Auden
Link to YouTube excerpt from the 1936 film. Enjoy!
