DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Even Greener Pastures
HTML https://evengreener.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Puns, puzzles, games, and wordplay
*****************************************************
#Post#: 459--------------------------------------------------
Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: Dan Smith Date: May 6, 2018, 8:38 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
This is based on an actual exam question, and I have to say that
to this day I believe the official "correct answer" was wrong. I
also should mention that if you do not know the Bible, you
probably should look up Psalm 90:10, linked here, modern English
translation
HTML https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+90%3A10&version=NET.
The question concerns a poem by A. E. Housman, known by its
first line, "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now." Here it is:
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Here is the question:
How old is the poet?
a) Twenty years old
b) Fifty years old
c) Seventy years old
d) It is impossible to tell
#Post#: 475--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: Allie Date: May 7, 2018, 9:31 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I am not good with numbers and have already changed my mind
about the answer, so I will say 20 before I change it again!
I don't think I will get it right, but I would like to thank for
this post. So interesting!
#Post#: 481--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: KingSlayer Date: May 7, 2018, 10:10 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Understanding the English was impossible for me without reading
the Bible link you sent, but after reading the link, I think the
answer is 20.
The poet says he thinks he'll live for 70 years. He has 50 more
years to live, so he's 20 now and he will never turn twenty
again. That's my interpretation. Now I wonder if there are more
interpretations.
#Post#: 486--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: the lost minion Date: May 7, 2018, 10:46 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I would also say 20. But then, I know nothing about gardening
and cherries.
#Post#: 513--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: Dan Smith Date: May 7, 2018, 3:41 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The officially correct answer was, indeed, "a: 20." The speaker
has an allotted or destined life span of seventy years; he is
twenty years old; he has fifty years of life left.
I insist, though, that the correct answer is "d: it is
impossible to tell," because the question asks for the age of
the poet, who could have written it at any age. Indeed, the poem
was in a book, A Shropshire Lad published in 1896 and A. E.
Housman was born in 1859. The person speaking in the poem is
twenty, but the poet was probably in his late thirties.
Incidentally, an awful lot of the poems in A Shropshire Lad seem
to be about people in their early twenties; a famous one is
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.”
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
“The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.”
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
#Post#: 514--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: KingSlayer Date: May 7, 2018, 3:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Dan Smith link=topic=68.msg513#msg513
date=1525725662]
The officially correct answer was, indeed, "a: 20." The speaker
has an allotted or destined life span of seventy years; he is
twenty years old; he has fifty years of life left.
I insist, though, that the correct answer is "d: it is
impossible to tell," because the question asks for the age of
the poet, who could have written it at any age. Indeed, the poem
was in a book, A Shropshire Lad published in 1896 and A. E.
Housman was born in 1859. The person speaking in the poem is
twenty, but the poet was probably in his late thirties.
[/quote]
Not saying that you're wrong about the impossibility to know the
age of the poet when he wrote this poem, but just because the
book has been published in 1896 doesn't weaken their correct
answer or strengthen your argument. Usually, when a poet writes
something, he waits for a while to publish the poem in a
collection of his works and this can take years. Nobody
publishes a book just for one poem. Also, the process of
publishing a book takes at least a few months up to several
years nowadays and it was probably equally hard, if not harder,
back in the 19th century.
#Post#: 536--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: the lost minion Date: May 8, 2018, 7:01 am
---------------------------------------------------------
@Dan
Wouldn't it make it fall into the category of trick questions if
we were to interpret the task the way you suggest? I mean, the
narrative is in the first person so it is quite natural to
associate the poet with the lyrical subject.
#Post#: 606--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riddle/puzzle: "Of my threescore years and ten..."
By: Dan Smith Date: May 9, 2018, 4:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
It falls in the category of "carelessly written questions." It
would have been perfectly easy to write "According to the person
speaking in the poem, what age is he?"
*****************************************************