Climbing the Poet's Tree: Challenges #3 & 4

Feel free to comment on this thread if you have any questions, comments, observations, lamentations, or exaltations.

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Congratulations are due to last week's winners: ariestess won Challenge #1 with I think Know Your History, and bookblather was the winner of Challenge #2 with this comment. Especial thanks go to bookblather for also being our judge for the first challenge.