Who said it? 16

Has it been a year since an episode of America's favorite blog game - Who said it? Apparently. I believe this is episode 16. And, apparently there was a time when I switched from Roman numerals to regular old numbers in the title. Oh, well, as they say. The self-imposed rule is that the quotes have to be from my own personal library. Answers at the bottom. Suggest you write down your own answers before you look.

1. "This has been a matter of some embarrassment to me because it reflects upon the performance of my duties as Chief Justice of the United States.
     When I accepted that position, it was with the fixed purpose of leaving politics permanently for service on the Court. That is still my purpose. It is irrevocable. I will not change it under any circumstances or conditions.
      Be they many or few, the remaining useful years of my life are dedicated to the service of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which work I am increasingly happy."

a. Earl Warren  b. William Taft  c. John Marshall  d. William Rehnquist

2. "So it is not too much to ask of Americans that they not be censors, that they run the risk of being deeply wounded by ideas so that that we may all be free. If we are wounded by an ugly idea, we must count it as part of the cost of freedom and, like American heroes in the days gone by, bravely carry on."

a. Mark Twain  b. Kurt Vonnegut c. Martin Luther King, Jr. d. Barack Obama

3. "My first conscious memory is of running. I was three years old, and my mother was driving us in a horse-drawn buggy, holding my baby brother Don on her lap while a neighbor girl held me. The horse turned the corner leading to our house at high speed, and I tumbled onto the ground. I must have been in shock, but I managed to get up and run after the buggy while my mother tried to make the horse stop. The only after effect of this accident was that years later, when the vogue of parting hair on the left side came along, I still had to comb mine straight back to hide a scar caused by the fall.

a. Abraham Lincoln b. Teddy Roosevelt c. Johnny Carson d. Richard Nixon

4. "A free and open mind, and political relativity. The organizer in his way of life, with his curiosity, irreverence, imagination, sense of humor, distrust of dogma, his self-organization, his understanding of the irrationality of much of human behavior, becomes a flexible personality, not a rigid structure that breaks when something unexpected happens. Having his own identity, he has no need for the security of an ideology or a panacea. He knows that life is a quest for uncertainty; that the only certain fact of life is uncertainty; and he can live with it. He knows that all values are relative, in a world of political relativity. Because of these qualities he is unlike to disintegrate into cynicism and disillusionment, for he does not depend on illusion."

a. Mother Jones b. Martin Luther King, Jr. c. Barack Obama d. Saul Alinsky

5. Responding to a proposition that there should be no slavery: "Did not Abraham and other patriarchs and prophets use slaves? Read what St. Paul teaches about servants, who at that time were all slaves. Therefore your third article is dead against the Gospel. . . . This article would make all men equal . . . and that is impossible. For a worldly kingdom cannot stand unless there is in it an inequality of persons, so that some are free, some imprisoned, some lords, some subjects."

a. Socrates b. St. Augustine c. Martin Luther d. George Washington

6. "Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past. If we want trUly to advance a step further, if we want to turn over a new leaf and really set a new man afoot, we must begin to turn mankind away from the long and desolate night of violence. May it not be that the new man the world needs is the nonviolent man? Longfellow said, 'In this world a man must either be an anvil or a hammer.' We must be hammers shaping a new society rather than anvils molded by the old. This not only will make us new men, but will give us a new kind of power. It will not be Lord Acton's image of power that tends to corrupt or absolute power that corrupts absolutely. It will be power infused with love and justice, that will change dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. A dark, desperate, confused and sin-sick world waits for this new kind of man and this new kind of power."

a. Nietzsche b. Martin Luther King, Jr. c. Churchill d. Hitler

7. "I have completely run out of organized ideas, but I have a large number of uncomfortable feelings about the world which I haven't been able to put into some obvious, logical, and sensible form. So, since I already contracted to give three lectures, the only thing I can do is to give this potpourri of uncomfortable feelings without having them very well organized.

a. Thoreau b. Noam Chomsky c. Richard Feynman d. Garrison Keillor

8. "My mother had told me that my father often dreamed that I would run away with a band of soldiers. That was more than two years after I first heard the voices. She told me that he had said to my brothers, 'If I believed that the thing I have dreamed about her would come pass, I would want you to drown her; and if you would not, I would drown her myself.' On account of these dreams, my father and mother watched me closely and kept me in great subjection. And I was obedient in everything.

But since God had commanded me to go, I must do it. And since God had commanded it, had I had a hundred fathers and a hundred mothers, and had I been a king's daughter, I would have gone."

a. Jeanne D'arc b. Mary Todd Lincoln c. Chelsea Manning d. Cleopatra

9. "You say that Washington and Hamilton are idolized by the tories. Hamilton is; Washington is not. To speak the truth, they puffed Washington like an air balloon to raise Hamilton into the air. Their preachers, their orators, their pamphlets and newspapers have spoken out and avowed publicly since Hamilton's death what I very well knew to be in their hearts for many years before, viz: that Hamiton was everything and Washington but a name. . . .

Hamilton's talents have been greatly exaggerated. His knowledge of the great subjects of coin and commerce and their intimate connections with all departments of every government, especially such as are so elective as ours, was very superficial and imperfect. He had derived most of his information from . . . I see no extraordinary reason for so much exclusive glory to Hamilton."

a. Thomas Jefferson b. John Adams c. Aaron Burr d. James Monroe

10. "Can anyone here say that if we can't do it, someone down the road can do it? And if no one does it, what happens to the country? All of us here know the economy would face an eventual collapse. I know it's a hell of a challenge, but ask yourselves: If not us, who? If not now, when?"

a. Abraham Lincoln b. FDR c. Ronald Reagan d. Barack Obama

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ANSWERS 

1. "This has been a matter of some embarrassment to me because it reflects upon the performance of my duties as Chief Justice of the United States. . . ."

a. Earl Warren  b. WilliamTaft  c. John Marshall  d. William Rehnquist  This statement was made after a poll showing that among Republicans Warren had a slight edge over Nixon for the next Republican presidential nominee and almost 3:1 among independent voters. It didn't matter. Eisenhower ran again and Nixon was his VP again. Warren had been governor of California, as well as previously a district attorney before becoming California's Attorney General and in '48 was the Republican Vice Presidential candidate behind Dewey - who, of course, lost. And, when LBJ, a Democrat, needed someone whose integrity was unquestioned to lead the investigation of the Kennedy assassination, he insisted on Warren, a Republican. Warren made this statement because he was outraged that anyone thought that a Supreme Court Justice would just drop everything at the thought of becoming president.

2. "So it is not too much to ask of Americans that they not be censors . . . ."

a. Mark Twain  b. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. c. Martin Luther King, Jr. d. Barack Obama. For reasons bordering on idiocy, Vonnegut's Slaughter-House 5, a great book, was long banned in many school districts and libraries. It was also once burned in a school furnace. Not surprisingly, he wasn't too keen on censorship. I can't imagine the other three choices were either. Vonnegut is still very popular among college kids. I just wish they would read the above in classes, as a form of censorship has risen again, this time not by the "authorities," but among the young.

3. "My first conscious memory is of running. . . . " I

a. Abraham Lincoln b. Teddy Roosevelt c. Johnny Carson d. Richard Nixon. His falling from the horse and buggy is from the opening chapter of his Memoirs. I enjoyed them. You had to keep in mind he was writing from his perspective and not surprisingly could be defensive, but most of it was fascinating to me. He was quite sentimental. Also, it reminded me of a story from my childhood, although it happened before I was born. My brother, Mark, now deceased, apparently fell out of the family car. Unseen by our mother, he charged down the street after the car.

4. "A free and open mind, and political relativity. The organizer in his way of life, with his curiosity, irreverence, imagination, sense of humor, distrust of dogma, his self-organization, his understanding of the irrationality of much of human behavior, becomes a flexible personality. . . ."

a. Mother Jones b. Martin Luther King, Jr. c. Barack Obama d. Saul Alinsky.  Alinsky was virtually unknown to the general public, despite being a well-known radical organizer in his time among those who paid attention to that sort of thing, until President Obama was elected and conservatives charged him with being an Alinsky acolyte. Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, published in 1971, and which I read out of curiosity, can be basically summed up in a sentence - The end does justify the means if the ends are important enough - and you think so too! In truth, both sides follow Alinsky's rules, in general. And perhaps Alinsky is right, if we think the ends are important enough, the means don't matter to us. That doesn't mean, of course, that we have to accept someone else's determination of what is important enough to justify anything.

5. Responding to a proposition that there should be no slavery: "Did not Abraham and other patriarchs and prophets use slaves? . . ."

a. Socrates b. St. Augustine c. Martin Luther d. George Washington.  How could it be Socrates, who lived long before St. Paul? Though himself a religious revolutionary, Luther was beholden to certain German princes for his success and safety. Thus, he tepidly responding to the revolutionary peasants who had been inspired by him and had drawn up "Twelve Articles," including one calling for an end to serfdom, or slavery. Though Luther encouraged peace and some conciliation between the princes and the peasants, he couldn't go along with their a no slavery position. Not surprisingly, the peasants were rather infuriated.

6. "Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past. If we want truly to advance a step further, if we want to turn over a new leaf and really set a new man afoot, we must begin to turn mankind away from the long and desolate night of violence. . . . "

a. Nietzsche b. Martin Luther King, Jr. c. Churchill d. Hitler. It was MLKing, Jr. in Where do we go from here? Although it did sound a little like Nietzsche, Churchill and even Hitler, in parts.

7. "I have completely run out of organized ideas, but I have a large number of uncomfortable feelings about the world which I haven't been able to put into some obvious, logical, and sensible form. So, since I already contracted to give three lectures, the only thing I can do is to give this potpourri of uncomfortable feelings without having them very well organized."

a. Thoreau b. Noam Chomsky c. Richard Feynman d. Garrison Keillor.  For those who don't know who Feynman was, he was a great American physicist and a Long Island boy, also, after his wife died, a free-wheeling, bongo playing, character who also gave a lot of famous lectures where he tried to put complicated things in a homespun, easy to understand way. I've read and listened to some and in my view, he succeeded. For one thing, he gave the best explanation of how computers work that I ever heard. He was also the guy who, in his later days and dying of cancer, figured out why the space shuttle Challenger blew up. He demanded an appendix in the report where he blasted NASA bigwigs for their unrealistic estimates of reliability which he said differed from those of their own engineers up to a thousand-fold. Very interesting guy. All the others also gave talks, and, I can see anyone of them saying the same thing. In fact, it sounds a lot like the way I blog.

8. "My mother had told me that my father often dreamed that I would run away with a band of soldiers. That was more than two years after I first heard the voices. . . ."

a. Jeanne D'arc b. Mary Todd Lincoln c. Chelsea Manning d. Cleopatra. There is a record of the things the Maid of Orleans said to her inquisitors and it is fascinating, even if possibly falsified.

9. "You say that Washington and Hamilton are idolized by the tories. Hamilton is; Washington is not. . . ."

a. Thomas Jefferson b. John Adams c. Aaron Burr d. James Monroe. I suppose any of them could have spoken so about Hamilton. All of them quarreled with him. But, Adams, more than any of them, was most happy to insult anyone he saw as a rival to his greatness. This was letter from Adams to Benjamin Rush, who was a correspondent of all three.

10. "Can anyone here say that if we can't do it, someone down the road can do it? And if no one does it, what happens to the country? . . . "

a. Abraham Lincoln b. FDR c. Ronald Reagan d. Barack Obama. Reagan, giving a pep talk to his cabinet. But, sounds like it could have been any of them or other presidents who wanted to change things.

Who said it 14?

      Round 14 of Who said it?  It's just a stupid game that is one more excuse for me to talk about books. As usual, all the quotes are from my own library. Do your best, and try not to google. The answers are at the bottom.

      1. Our place as a Nation is and must be with the nations that have left indelibly their impress on the centuries. Men will tell you that the great expanding nations of antiquity have passed away. So they have; and so have all others. Those that did not expand passed away and left not so much as a memory behind them. The Roman expanded, the Roman passed away, but the Roman has left the print of his law, of his language, of his masterful ability in administration, deep in the world’s history, deeply imprinted in the character of the races that came after him. I ask that this people rise level to the greatness of its opportunities. I do not ask that it seek for the easiest path.

a. Teddy Roosevelt  b. Adolf Hitler  c. Ronald Reagan  d. Barack Obama

*

2. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them

a.     Plato  b. St. Augustine  c. Mohammad  d. Benjamin Franklin

*

3.  In your schooldays most of you who read this book made acquaintance with the noble building of Euclid’s geometry, and you remember – the magnificent structure, on the lofty staircase of which you were chased about for uncounted hours by conscientious teachers. By reason of our past experience, you would certainly regard everyone with disdain who should pronounce even the most out-of-the-way proposition of this science to be untrue. But perhaps this feeling of proud certainty would leave you immediately if some one were to ask you: “What, then, do you mean by the assertion that these propositions are true?” Let us proceed to give this question a little consideration.

a.        Plato  b. Spinoza  c. Einstein  d. Franklin D. Roosevelt

*

       4.  Women really have not much part in all this, though they may use the language of romantic love, since it is so entwined in all our idioms. The sexual impulse makes women (naturally when unspoiled more unselfish) very sympathetic and understanding, or specially desirous of being so (or seeming so), and very ready to enter into all the interests, as far as they can, from ties to religion, of the young man they are attracted to. No intent necessarily to deceive: sheer instinct: the servient, helpmeet instinct, generously warmed by desire and young blood. Under this impulse they can in fact often achieve very remarkable insight and understanding, even of things otherwise outside their natural range: for it is their gift to be receptive, stimulated, fertilized (in many other matters than the physical) by the male. Every teacher knows that. How quickly an intelligent woman can be taught, grasp his ideas, see his point – and how with rare exceptions) they can go no further, when they leave his hand, or when they cease to take a personal interest in him. But this is their natural avenue to love. Before the young woman knows where she is (and while the romantic young man, when he exists, is still sighing) she may actually ‘fall in love’. Which for her, an unspoiled natural young woman, means that she wants to become the mother of the young man’s children, even if that desire is by no means clear to her or explicit. And then things are going to happen: and they may be very painful and harmful, if things go wrong. Particularly if the young man only wanted a temporary guiding star and divinity (until he hitches his wagon to a brighter one), and was merely enjoying the flattery of sympathy nicely seasoned with a titillation of sex-all quite innocent, of course, and worlds away from ‘seduction’.

       a. Winston Churchill b. Sigmund Freud  c. J.R.R. Tolkien  d. Ayn Rand   

       *

       5. As for the people I am accusing, I do not know them, I have never seen them, and I bear them neither ill-will nor hatred. To me they are mere entities, agents of harm to society. The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice.

I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the inquiry take place in broad daylight! I am waiting.

a.   Lord Randolph Churchill on his resignation in 1884.

b.   Emile Zola in his famous J’accuse letter defending Dreyfuss.

c.    Adolph Hitler in his speech on being named Chancellor.

d.   Julian Assange from his balcony in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

*

6. I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason: I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me.

a. Abraham Lincoln  b. David Henry Thoreau  c.  J.R.R. Tolkien  d. Ayn Rand

*

7. The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), “That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish; and even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force, which remains, after deducting the inferior.’ When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous, than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion.

      a. Hobbes   b.  Kant   c.  Spinoza   d. Hume

      *

      8. These people have always been parasites. Lately I do not know, but I have the feeling sometimes that they are a kind of cerebral parasite. They know only too well what is happening in my brain, for instance. Whatever I say today, as I stand before you, they knew of it yesterday already. And even if I myself did not know of it yesterday—they did, these most excellent receptacles of wisdom!

     

      Actually, these creatures know everything. And, even if facts prove their pronouncements blatant lies, they have the nerve to come up with new pronouncements immediately. . . . It keeps the people from having time for reflection. Should people truly reflect on all these various prophecies, compare them to reality, then these scribblers would not get a penny for their false reports. Therefore their tactic is, once one prophecy has been disproved, to come up with three new ones in its stead. And so they keep on lying, according to a type of snowball tactics, from today until tomorrow, from tomorrow until the next day.

     

      a. Hitler  b. FDR  c. Spiro Agnew   d. Trump

v    *

      9.  The age of the world is great enough for our imaginations, even according to the Mosaic account, without borrowing any years from the geologist. From Adam and Eve at one leap sheer down to the deluge, and then through the ancient monarchies, through Babylon and Thebes, Brahma and Abraham, . . . down through Odin and Christ to—America. It is a wearisome while.—And yet the lives of but sixty old women, such as live under the hill, say of a century each, strung together, are sufficient to reach over the whole ground. Taking hold of hands they would span the interval from Eve to my own mother. A respectable tea-party merely,--whose gossip would be Universal History.

      a. Cotton Mather  b. Thoreau  c. Jefferson  d. Will Durant

      *

      

      10.  When we got to the Happy Times Tavern the Madam pulled to a stop. She jumped out and ran for the saloon, desperate for a refill. Over her shoulder she yelled at me to put the horse away.

      The poor beast was lathered with sweat and foam and wheezing like a leaky steam engine. I managed to get him out of harness and into his stall before I started heaving up. I was too sick to move. I went to sleep on a pile of straw.

      

      When I woke up in the morning Christopher Schang was there in the stables crying. The horse was dead. Christopher started wailing at me that this was the best friend he ever had, and I had killed him. How should I know from a horse, that you had to cool him out after a gallop and put him to bed with a blanket on?

      

      A big crowd came that night. Just as the diggers swarmed into the joint I felt suddenly dizzy, like I had during the wild ride the night before. The back room started lifting and sinking and turning around in a circle. I lost all control. I fell off the piano stool. One of the girls helped me up. I fell off again. This time Mrs. Schang saw me. She bellowed at me to get the hell back on the stool and start playing. I staggered to my feet and fell against the keyboard. The Madam grabbed me and sat me straight, so hard that the butt of my spine felt like it was cracked.

      The third time I dropped to the floor she was back in the saloon. Two of the girls picked me up and dragged me upstairs and laid me on the bed, while another girl went to call a doctor. The doctor came. He felt my forehead. He opened my shirt and looked at me closely.

  

       “Measles,” the doctor said.

      When word of my condition was passed downstairs, I could hear Mrs. Schang roar, clean through the floor, “I don’t want no sick Jews in my place! Get him out of her!”

      The next thing I remember I was waiting on the platform of the Freeport railroad station.  The back room girls had chipped in to buy me a ticket to the city, and two of them—my special friends—had brought me to the train.

      The train came. They helped me on board. One of the girls said, “You don’t know how lucky you are, kid, to come down with the measles.” The other girl was about to cry. “I’m going to miss you, honey,” she said. “I’m going to miss that song you play so beautiful.”

      The four whores of the Happy Timers were the first fans I ever had, and I shall always be grateful to them.

      a.   Teller (Penn’s partner)  b. Marcel Marceau  c. Harpo Marx  d.  Billy Joel

  

ANSWERS

      1.     “Our place as a Nation is and must be with the nations that have left indelibly their impress on the centuries. . . ”

a. That was Teddy from a speech in San Francisco in 1903. With a little imagination, it could be Hitler, right?

      2.     “Here is my creed. I believe in one God. . .”

d. That was Benjamin Franklin in a letter to a friend just before his own death, answering a direct question as to his religious beliefs. At one time probably an atheist, or at least an agnostic, he became more religious as he aged, but never took to one sect over another, but preferred, not surprisingly, Christianity.

      3.     “In your schooldays most of you who read this book made acquaintance with the noble building of Euclid’s geometry. . .”  

b.      Einstein – starting an explanation on relativity. The great physicists of the 20^th century were deeply in love with philosophy, which often guided them.

      4.     “Women really have not much part in all this . . .”

c.      Tolkien. Remember, he was born a 19^th century man and his head was in the ancient world. He died towards the beginning of the modern feminist movement and I doubt thought much about it.

      5.     “As for the people I am accusing . . .”

d.     Emile Zola. It was a long, but pretty good letter, lots of paragraphs which began with J,accuse.

      6.     “I have come to the conclusion never . . . marrying . . . blockhead enough to . . . .”

a.   That was Lincoln when he was unsuccessful with women and morose. Could have been Thoreau or Rand, I guess, but not. Not Tolkien who was married for a long time.

      7.     “The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), “That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle. . . .”

d.     Hume, in his tract, On Miracles. Not best work. Frankly, isn’t that how we judge anything we hear that sounds outlandish, miracle or not? Either we think the person telling us is lying (or the person who told him/her) or we believe it according to our interests. I raised my daughter to understand that people believe you or not, not based on your honesty, but based on their own interests. Even if they generally think you honest, if it bucks up against something important to them (often religion, their family or sports), you lose.

      8.     “These people gave always been parasites. . . .”   

a.     Hitler. I cheated a little and took out one sentence (the ellipses) which gave it away. But sounds like Trump, right? Although, hate to say it, but Hitler spoke a lot more coherently. No, I’m not saying he’s a Nazi. Relax. Sounds a little like TR too. See no. 1.

9.             9.  “The age of the world is great enough for our imaginations, even according to the Mosaic account . . . .”

b.     Thoreau, my favorite American writer. I wish I could write one line about something significant as sublime as he could about anything – even mud.

10.  “When we got to the Happy Times Tavern the Madam pulled to a stop. . . .”

c.      All four choices are at least half-Jewish, yes, even Marcel Marceau and Billy Joel and the first three with silent characters. But the answer is Harpo, who grew up in NYC and wrote (with help) the best autobiography I ever read, “Harpo Speaks!”

Th-Th-That’s all folks!

Who said it - Poetry

It’s been a while since we played the universe’s favorite game – Who said it? It’s a little different this time.  I give you the poem, found somewhere in my library, and you tell me who wrote it out of the four choices I give you. Really, there’s no reason you should know the answers to these questions and I wouldn’t do very well either, except on two.  But give it a shot.  If it was originally in a foreign language, of course I have the English translation.  Answers at the bottom and as usual I apologize for the sometimes odd formatting. It's over my head.

1. This first one is about a future president’s  schoolmate, named Matthew, who went crazy in his late teens. When the poet returned as an adult to his home town, he found Matthew still alive and I guess wondered why. This is the first three and last stanza.

But here’s an object more of dread

Than ought the grave contains—

A human form with reason fled, mad-man wild

While wretched life remains.

Poor Matthew! Once of genius bright,

A fortune-favored child—

Now locked for aye, in mental night,

A haggard mad-man wild.

Poor Matthew! I have ne’er forgot

When first, with maddened will,

Yourself you maimed, your father fought,

And mother strove to kill;            

-  - -

O death! Thou awe-inspiring prince,

That keepst the world in fear;

Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence,

And leave him ling’ring here? 

1.  Abraham Lincoln   b.  Thomas Jefferson  c.  William McKinley  d.  Franklin D. Roosevelt

2)

Nature

O nature I do not aspire

To be the highest in thy quire,

To be a meteor in the sky

Or comet that may range on high,

Only a zephyr that may blow

Among the reeds by the river low. 

Give me thy most privy place

Where to run my airy race.

In some withdrawn unpublic mead

Let me sigh upon a reed,

Or in the woods with leafy din

Whisper the still evening in,

For I had rather be thy child

And pupil in the forest wild

Than be the king of men elsewhere

And most sovereign slave of care

To have one moment of thy dawn

Than share the city’s year forlorn.

Some still work give me to do                      

Only be it near to you.

1. Robert E. Lee   b. Jeb Stuart  c. Ralph Waldo Emerson  D. Henry David Thoreau

3)

Dear is my sleep, but more to be mere stone,

So long as ruin and dishonor reign.

To see naught, to feel naught, is my great gain;

Then wake me not; speak in an undertone.

 

1. Ghengis Khan  b. Marcus Anthony   c. Michaelangelo  d. Einstein

4)

That Gourd I’ll bear wherever I go

That name will be a charm

To nerve my arm ‘gainst ev’ry foe

And ev’ry foe disarm.

‘Mong those whom I can ne’er forget

(let none their worth gainsay)

I’ll prize thee dearest-fondest yet

My Bettie—far away.

       a.  Jeb Bush  b. Jeb Stuart  c. Robert E. Lee  d. Robert Burns

5)

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known.

 

               a. General William Sherman  b. Edgar Allan Poe  c.  Longfellow   d.  J.R.R. Tolkien


6) 

 

By one decisive argument,

Giles gained his lovely Kate’s consent

To fix the bridal day.

“Why such haste, dear Giles, to wed?

I shall not change my mind,” she said.

“But, then,” said he, “I may!” 

1. Dashiell Hammett  b. Raymond Chandler  c. Richard Burton  d. Damon Runyon

7)

How every member of Convention,

Tortures his brains and racks invention,

To blast good men and in their place

Foist knaves and fools with better grace:

O’erturn our happy constitution,

Reduce all order to confusion,

With want of laws make mankind groan,

And on their miseries raise a throne.

1. Aaron Burr  b. Nathan Hale  c. Noah Webster  d. Ethan Allen

8)  I guess the author of this was practiced at deception. Not so nice for the husband, but a revealing poem. 

1. Arrive before your husband. Not that I can
   See quite what good arriving first will do;
   But still arrive before him. When he’s taken
   His place upon the couch and you go too
   To sit beside him, on your best behavior,
   Stealthily touch my foot, and look at me,
   Watching my nods, my eyes, my face’s language;
   Catch and return my signals secretly.
   I’ll send a wordless message with my eyebrows;
   You’ll read my fingers’ words, words traced in wine.
   When you recall our games of love together,
   Your finger on rosy cheeks must trace a line.
   If in your silent thoughts you wish to child me,
   Let your hand hold the lobe of your soft ear;
   When, darling, what I do or say gives pleasure,
   Keep turning to and fro the ring you wear.
   When you wish well-earned curses on your husband,
   Lay your hand on the table, as in prayer.
   If he pours you wine, watch out, tell him to drink it;
   Ask for what you want from the waiter there.
   I shall take next the glass you hand the waiter,
   And I’ll drink from the place you took your sips;
   If he should offer anything he’s tasted,
   Refuse whatever food has touched his lips.
   Don’t let him plant his arms around your shoulder,
   Don’t rest your gentle head on his hard chest,
   Don’t let your dress, your breasts, admit his fingers,
   And—most of all—no kisses to be pressed!
   You kiss—and I’ll reveal myself your lover;
   I’ll say ‘they’re mine’; my legal claim I’ll stake.
   All this, of course, I’ll see, but what’s well hidden
   Under your dress—blind terror makes me quake.

                         a.King Solomon b.  Ovid   c.  Upton Sinclair   d.  LBJ 

9)


What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty!
In form, in moving, how express and admirable!
In action, how like an angel!
In apprehension, how like a god! 

            a. Shakepeare  b.  Milton  c.  Upton Sinclair  d.  Freud

10)

In devil’s dungeon chained I lay

The pangs of death swept o’er me.

My sin devoured me night and day

In which my mother bore me.

My anguish ever grew more rife,

I took no pleasure in my life

And sin had made me crazy.

Then was the Father troubled sore

To see me ever languish.

The Everlasting Pity swore

To save me from my anguish.

He turned to me his father heart

And chose himself a bitter part,

His Dearest did it cost him.

Thus spoke the Son, “Hold thou to me,

From now on thou wilt make it.

I gave my very life for thee

And for thee I will stake it.

For I am thine and thou are mine,

And where I am our lives entwine,

The Old Fiend cannot shake it.”

1. St. Paul  b. Martin Luther  c. Francis Scott Key  d. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Answers

1. A.  Abe Lincoln.  I have no idea if he asked Matt how he was doing first before he wrote a poem wondering why he wasn’t dead.
2. D.  Thoreau. One of my three favorite American prose authors. But not a great poet.
3. C.   Michaelangelo, writing about his newly unveiled statue of Night, Michaelangelo decided to write his own. I’ve seen the statue. It’s worth a poem, and has an interesting story. For one, like other works of his, except for her breasts, her body is clearly that of a man – they even have sketches of males done by him for it. It is also argued by physicians that her left breast shows several indications of cancer, and that it seems to be deliberate (for which I have no opinion).
4. B.   Jeb Stuart, writing of a young love. As good a calvary man as Jeb was, he did not outlive the war and, thankfully, did not become a full time poet.
5. D.   J.R.R. Tolkien.  That’s right out of The Hobbit. It’s what Bilbo said on returning to The Hobbit after his long adventure. Gandalf, who was with him noted that he had changed quite a bit since they started out a year before.
6. A.   Sounds like it would be a Damon Runyon thing, as it is comical. But, it was Dashiell Hammett. Though he had a long affair with the playwrite, Lillian Hellman, and they discussed marriage frequently, they never went down the aisle together.  Lucky for her as he was more than a handful. He was impossible.  At least he wasn’t so drunk that he showed her his poems along these lines.  Of course, he was married to another woman, and she and their children are who I feel sorry for.
7. C.  Noah Webster.  Fascinating man. It almost sounds like he is chastising congress. But it was the opposite. If he was nothing else, he was all for the U.S. and against anyone most who challenged it – in the case of this poem, groups opposed to a congressional act to pay officers more money to make up for the depreciating currency after the Revolutionary War.
8. D. LBJ, the cad, probably said as much to someone, but it was Ovid a long, long time ago.
9. A. Shakespeare.  Hamlet. It was my gimme.
10. B  Martin Luther.  Technically a hymn to be sung rather than a poem, but what’s the difference? I have been fascinated by Herr Luther for a long time. Not that I believe in his religion, but he was a revolutionary figure nonetheless.