1. Which Romantic poet greets the birds and flowers with these lines: "Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed / Their snow-white blossoms on my head, / With brightest sunshine round me spread / Of spring's unclouded weather, / In this sequestered nook how sweet / To sit upon my orchard-seat!"

   1. Shelley

   2. Wordsworth

   3. Byron

   4. Keats

2. Shakespeare has “seen roses damasked, red and white”, but what’s the next line?

   1. And such fine roses see I in her cheeks

   2. But finer roses see I her in her cheeks

   3. But no such roses see I in her cheeks

3. The poet finds himself at a “wine party” and lies “in a drowse, knowing it not. / The blown flowers fell and filled my lap.” But when was The Solitude of Night written?

   1. 21st century

   2. 18th century

   3. 13th century

   4. 8th century

4. Gerard Manley Hopkins is in questioning mood, asking “Is it anything true? Does it grow upon the ground? / It was made of earth's mould, but it went from men's eyes, / And its place is a secret and shut in the skies.” But what is his mysterious flower?

   1. Rose

   2. Daffodil

   3. Sunflower

5. And what about the flower described as “Pink, small, and punctual,/ Aromatic, low” by Emily Dickinson, “Dear to the moss,/ Known by the knoll,/ Next to the robin/ In every human soul”?

   1. Dahlia

   2. Peony

   3. Mayflower

6. A handsome young man finds himself diverted and finds himself – according to Rilke – condemned “forever” to endure “the outrage of his too pure image”. But which flowery youth is it?

   1. Hyacinthus

   2. Narcissus

   3. Crocus

7. What reminds Ezra Pound of “petals on a wet, black bough”?

   1. Low clouds at dusk.

   2. Faces in a metro station.

   3. Boats out at sea.

8. The “slightest look” will “unclose” the poet, even though he has closed himself “as fingers, / you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens / (touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose”. But which 20th-century American poet is revealing his inner self?

   1. ee cummings

   2. Frank O'Hara

   3. Allen Ginsberg

   4. John Ashbery

9. From which language is this botanical excerpt translated? “The bed of flowers / Loosens amain, / The beauteous snowdrops / Droop o'er the plain. / The crocus opens / Its glowing bud, / Like emeralds others, / Others, like blood.”

   1. French

   2. Italian

   3. German

   4. Spanish

10. One poet laments a “Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r” whose “slender stem” he crushed “amang the stoure”. Another mourns a “mountain hyacinth”, trod upon “With clumsy, rustic foot … Now you are a broken seal: / A scarlet stain upon the earth.” But how many years separate these two disasters?

    1. 50

    2. 100

    3. 500

    4. More than 1,000

Solutions

1:B, 2:C, 3:D, 4:A, 5:C, 6:B, 7:B, 8:A, 9:C, 10:D

Scores

1. 1 and above.

   Barren. Throw some manure on it and have another go!

2. 6 and above.

   Almost there! Your knowledge of flower poetry is budding – try again and grow as a person

3. 8 and above.

   Congratulations! Your muse is in full bloom