Wednesday 22 December 2010

A well known phrase

Some phrases from literary works that have passed into common usage . Do you know where they came from?

1. 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'

2. 'The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft-a-gley'.

3. 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'.

4. 'No man is an island'.

5. 'All hope abandon, ye who enter here'.

6. 'All hell broke loose'.

7. 'To err is human, to forgive divine'.

8. 'Heaven has no rage like a love to hate turned, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned'.

9. 'East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.'

10. 'The female of the species is more deadly than the male'.



Answers
1. 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'
Richard Lovelace (1618–1657) 'To Althea, from Prison'

2. 'The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft-a-gley'.
Robert Burns (1759-1796) 'To a Mouse'

3. 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'.
John Keats (1795-1821) 'Ode to a Grecian Urn'

4. 'No man is an island'.
John Donne, (1572-1631) 'Devotions'

5. 'All hope abandon, ye who enter here'.
John Milton (1608-1674), 'Paradise Lost'

6. 'All hell broke loose'.
John Milton (1608-1674), 'Paradise Lost'

7. 'To err is human, to forgive divine'.
Alexander Pope, 'An Essay on Confessions'

8. 'Heaven has no rage like a love to hate turned, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned'.
William Congreve (1670-1729), 'The Mourning Bride'.

9. 'East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.'
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), 'The Ballad of East and West'

10. 'The female of the species is more deadly than the male'.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), 'The Female of the Species'

3 comments:

  1. Six out of ten. Ah well. Could have been worse. Mind you could have been better too. I think that I should have known 1 and 10 but didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm, disappointed to find my answer to 'hell hath no fury' (Shakespeare) was wide of the mark. Amazing how long I've been convinced of that. What a good game this is. Biblical phrases next?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Keats, Burns, Milton... none of which I studied at school. 0 out of 10 for me I'm afraid.

    ReplyDelete

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