Poetic allusions (Charity Quiz)

[keyboardix]

1. Which modern novel with a title from a 17th century poem features a professional pianist who goes deaf ?
2. Which 18th century poet wished that a 17th century poet were alive to save England? (Thomas Gray re Milton, perhaps ?????)
3. In which poem did an heroic king bemoan being married to an old woman?
4.Which 2 words describe (a) a cocktail (b) wall-hangings in Lepanto (c) sea creatures in the Ancient Mariner ? (I cannot see beyond White Lady and Water Snakes & presumably (a) (b) & (c) are same two words)
5.Which French wine stained a poet's mouth purple? (I can think only of burgundy and bordeaux or claret)
6.Where did wine taste of tar ?
I hope some fellow ABers can help me, please.

[homeresque]

My best guess for 1 is 'An equal death' by Vickram Seth. The title is taken from a John Donne sermon (rather than poem).

[homeresque]

Sorry, had a bit of a brainstorm there, it should be 'An equal music'

[shaneystar2]

I think..... the Ancient Mariner in the Rhyme called the sea creatures "Slimy things "..but I can't see what that has to do with wall hangings etc ! Perhaps each one does have a separate answer.

[kettledrum]

2. It sounds as if it should be Wordsworth's

Milton thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England has need of thee!

But it was written in 1802 making it 19th century ( just ). Would one describe Wordsworth (1770-1850) as an 18th C poet?

[slaney]

2. Agree must be Wordsworth.
6. This is from a poem by Hilaire Belloc called Tanentella
"Do you remember the inn Miranda.... the fleas that tease in the high Pyrenees, and the wine that tasted of the tar."
5. This sounds indeed as if it should be from Keats and his "purple -stained mouth", but the wine is not specifically
named apart from suggesting it is French Provencal.

[snoozy]

5 Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Proven�al song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

As previously stated no specific wine mentioned. Something from the Langedoc or Gigondas or Vacqueras? Maybe "the warm South" would suffice.

Snoozy

[slaney]

4. Black Velvet
There is a poem by GK Chesterton called Lepanto in which he describes the walls "hung with velvet that is black
Also name of cocktail
In the "Ancient Mariner" sea snakes are described as "velvet black"

[keyboardix]

homeresque
shaneystar2
kettledrum
slaney
snoozy

I think that you are all brilliant, and thank every one of you so very much for your kind suggestions and help.
Any further ideas on 3 above - could the answer be King Arthur ?

[slaney]

3. Long shot!
??Oedipus Rex