Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

1 Which of the following does NOT characterize Thomas Hardy's writing?
The difficulties of life

Country folkways

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Disillusionment
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Current day South England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's town of origin
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1898

1912

1900

1879
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
W.H. Auden

George Eliot

Philip Larkin

Robert Frost
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's true sense of passivity
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.

After breaking up with his ex-partner, the speaker maintains a facade of passivity that does not quite manage to conceal his bitterness.

The speaker has read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven."

The speaker suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She suffered more than the speaker did.

She has blue eyes.

She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.

She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
auspicious

futuristic

threatening

lucky
10 In which season is the poem set?
Winter

Summer

Spring

Unspecified
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Persistence of Memories

The Facade of Neutrality

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Optimism of Love
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
conceals

chides

curses

casts
13 What does God do to the white sun in the fourth stanza?
curses

chides

celebrates

hides
14 What does the starving sod represent?
The lower-class people of Wessex suffered more than the upper-class.

The ground of the speaker's relationship to his ex is sterile, as is the speaker's capacity for new love.

Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Death, hibernation, and endings

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cycles, rest, and family

Cookies, Santa, and celebration
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ending of the relationship

The ex-lover's smile

The speaker's angry bitterness

The setting and the facade of neutrality
17 Define "keen."
(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) neutral

(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) sharp and well-defined
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
The poem does not rhyme

ABBA

ABCD

AABB
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

None

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A crow coming home to roost

A blackbird singing in a tree

An ominous bird taking flight
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love is capable of harm, but one must choose to risk one's heart.

Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

Love is cruel but it pays off.
22 What is polysyndeton?
The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

A kind of metaphor

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

A literary device in which one word refers in part to another
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The ex-partner's smile

The white sun

Winter

The yellow sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"The change was like the knell"

"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"

"And the sun was white, as though chidden of God"

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Evangelical Christian

Agnostic, but complexly so

Spiritualistic

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Neutral Tones study guide contains a biography of Thomas Hardy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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