MCQs – Life and Works of Dereck Walcott

1. In which year was Derek Walcott born?

A) 1926

B) 1930

C) 1936

D) 1942

Answer: A) 1926

 

2. Which island was Walcott born on?

A) St. Lucia

B) Jamaica

C) Trinidad

D) Barbados

Answer: A) St. Lucia

 

3. Which of the following works is NOT written by Derek Walcott?

A) Omeros

B) Dream on Monkey Mountain

C) The House on Mango Street

D) Another Life

Answer: C) The House on Mango Street (by Sandra Cisneros)

 

4. Which award did Walcott receive in 1992?

A) Pulitzer Prize for Drama

B) Nobel Prize in Literature

C) National Book Award for Poetry

D) Man Booker Prize

Answer: B) Nobel Prize in Literature

 

5. Which of the following is a famous poem by Walcott?

A) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

B) The Waste Land

C) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

D) Love After Love

Answer: D) Love After Love

 

6. What is the name of Walcott’s play that premiered on Broadway in 1970?

A) Dream on Monkey Mountain

B) The Odyssey: A Stage Version

C) Ti-Jean and His Brothers

D) Pantomime

Answer: A) Dream on Monkey Mountain

 

7. Which long poem reimagines Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey?

A) The Wasteland

B) Paradise Lost

C) Omeros

D) The Aeneid

Answer: C) Omeros

 

8. Which literary movement is Walcott most associated with?

A) Romanticism

B) Modernism

C) Postmodernism

D) Caribbean literature

Answer: D) Caribbean literature

 

9. Which play is NOT written by Walcott?

A) A Branch of the Blue Nile

B) Beef, No Chicken

C) The Sea at Dauphin

D) Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

Answer: D) Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (by Errol John)

 

10. Which university did Walcott attend?

A) Harvard University

B) University of Oxford

C) University of the West Indies

D) University of Cambridge

Answer: C) University of the West Indies

 

11. Which of the following plays is NOT part of Walcott's Haitian Trilogy?

A) Henri Christophe

B) The Sea at Dauphin

C) Drums and Colours

D) The Haitian Earth

Answer: B) The Sea at Dauphin

 

12. Which theater company did Walcott co-found in Trinidad?

A) Little Carib Theatre

B) National Theatre Company of Trinidad and Tobago

C) Trinidad Theatre Workshop

D) Queen’s Hall Theatre

Answer: C) Trinidad Theatre Workshop

 

13. Which is NOT a recurring theme in Walcott’s works?

A) Colonialism

B) Nature

C) Love and Relationships

D) Science Fiction

Answer: D) Science Fiction

 

14. Which is a collection of Walcott’s essays?

A) Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays

B) The Star-Apple Kingdom

C) What the Twilight Says

D) Tiepolo’s Hound

Answer: C) What the Twilight Says

 

15. Which work was adapted into an opera by Philip Glass?

A) Omeros

B) Dream on Monkey Mountain

C) The Bounty

D) The Odyssey: A Stage Version

Answer: A) Omeros

 

16. Which statement about Walcott’s personal life is TRUE?

A) He was married three times.

B) He had no children.

C) He lived in St. Lucia his entire life.

D) He was a devout Catholic.

Answer: A) He was married three times.

 

17. Which best describes Walcott’s writing style?

A) Exclusively experimental/avant-garde

B) Strictly traditional/classical

C) Minimalist and simple

D) Varied, adapting to subject matter

Answer: D) Varied, adapting to subject matter

 

18. Which is NOT a major theme in Walcott’s poetry?

A) Beauty of nature

B) Legacy of colonialism

C) Survival struggles of ordinary people

D) Complexity of human identity

Answer: C) Survival struggles of ordinary people (Less prominent than other themes)

 

19. Which work is Walcott’s memoir?

A) Another Life

B) The Castaway

C) The Schooner Flight

D) The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory

Answer: A) Another Life

20. Which is TRUE about Walcott’s playwriting career?

A) Wrote 30+ plays

B) Plays performed more abroad than in the Caribbean

C) Focused on Caribbean identity/history

D) All of the above

Answer: D) All of the above

21. How did Walcott finance the publication of his first poetry collection (25 Poems)?

A) University scholarship

B) Borrowed $200 from his mother

C) Rockefeller Fellowship

D) Prize money from a writing contest

Answer: B) Borrowed $200 from his mother

22. Which university did Walcott attend?

A) University of Oxford

B) University of Cambridge

C) University of the West Indies

D) Harvard University

Answer: C) University of the West Indies

23. Which Walcott poem reflects his mixed African-European heritage?

A) Omeros

B) Love After Love

C) A Far Cry from Africa

D) The Bounty

Answer: C) A Far Cry from Africa

 

24. What is Walcott's Homeric epic poem based on The Iliad and The Odyssey called?

A) Another Life

B) Omeros

C) The Star-Apple Kingdom

D) Tiepolo’s Hound

Answer: B) Omeros

25. Which poetry collection won Walcott the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2010?

A) White Egrets

B) The Prodigal

C) Midsummer

D) The Arkansas Testament

Answer: A) White Egrets

26. Which character in Dream on Monkey Mountain symbolizes death?

A) Makak

B) Basil

C) Corporal

D) Moustique

Answer: B) Basil

27. Which prestigious award did Walcott win in 1992?

A) Pulitzer Prize

B) Man Booker Prize

C) Nobel Prize in Literature

D) Griffin Poetry Prize

Answer: C) Nobel Prize in Literature

28. For which play did Walcott win an Obie Award in 1971?

A) The Sea at Dauphin

B) Pantomime

C) Dream on Monkey Mountain

D) O Babylon!

Answer: C) Dream on Monkey Mountain

29. Which honor did Walcott receive in 2015?

A) Queen’s Medal for Poetry

B) MacArthur Fellowship

C) Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award

D) Order of the British Empire

Answer: C) Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award

30. Which literary form is Omeros written in?

A) Sonnet sequence

B) Terza rima

C) Free verse

D) Blank verse

Answer: B) Terza rima

31. Which theater group did Walcott found in 1959?

A) Little Carib Theatre

B) Trinidad Theatre Workshop

C) National Theatre of St. Lucia

D) Royal Shakespeare Company

Answer: B) Trinidad Theatre Workshop

32. Which of Walcott’s plays is set in Haiti?

A) Henri Christophe

B) The Sea at Dauphin

C) Pantomime

D) Ti-Jean and His Brothers

Answer: A) Henri Christophe

33. How many times was Walcott married?

A) Once

B) Twice

C) Three times

D) Never married

Answer: C) Three times

34. Which art form did Walcott practice alongside writing?

A) Sculpture

B) Watercolor painting

C) Ballet choreography

D) Architecture

Answer: B) Watercolor painting

35. What historical figure is the protagonist of Walcott’s first play (Henri Christophe)?

A) A Haitian revolutionary

B) A Trinidadian calypso singer

C) A British colonial officer

D) A St. Lucian fisherman

Answer: A) A Haitian revolutionary

36. Which essay collection includes Walcott’s reflections on Caribbean theater?

A) The Antilles

B) What the Twilight Says

C) The Fortunate Traveller

D) Another Life

Answer: B) What the Twilight Says

37. Which character in Omeros represents Homer?

A) Achille

B) Seven Seas

C) Major Plunkett

D) Helen

Answer: B) Seven Seas

38. Walcott pass away in ………?

A) March 2010

B) January 2017

C) March 2017

D) January 2020

Answer: C) March 2017