Attack (Sassoon poem) Quizzes

1 Which point(s) of view is/are used in the poem?

Second and third-person

First-person

Third-person

Second-person
2 Describe the speaker.

The speaker is a soldier who experiences shell shock as a result of the bristling fire.

The speaker is Sassoon himself.

The speaker is a commanding officer.

An unidentified speaker witnesses a battle taking place. The final plea to Jesus to stop the violence indicates that the speaker is either participating in the battle, or is speaking on behalf of the soldiers.
3 How many lines does the poem have?

14

13

11

12
4 What poetic form does "Attack" most closely resemble?

Sonnet

Villanelle

Sestina

Epic
5 What kinds of poems deal with morning and the departure of lovers?

Love poem

Aubade

Shakespeare

Sonnet
6 Describe the sunlight in the poem.

Strong and blinding

Pale yellow, filtering

Bright purple, glowing

Wild purple, glowering
7 Define "dun"

The state of being finished

A bright green color

A horse

Of a dull grayish-brown color.
8 What first emerges in the morning light?

The tanks

The ridge

The soldiers

The trench
9 Which is not an example of alliteration?

time ticks blank and busy

The barrage roars and lifts

Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud

The menacing scarred slope
10 What is alliteration?

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

The repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

The use of "like" or "as" to make a comparison.
11 Why are the soldiers "clumsily bowed"?

They are deathly afraid.

They are weighed down by gear.

They have been crippled.

They bow to their superiors
12 What is a barrage?

A place where military gear is stored

Soldiers' accommodations

A concentrated artillery bombardment over a wide area

A battlefield
13 What does not get personified in the poem?

The slope

Hope

The mud

The sunlight
14 Which is example of personification?

They leave their trenches, going over the top,

Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,

At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun

And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists, / Flounders in mud
15 What is personification?

The occurrence of a poet humanizing someone.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
16 What is the form?

Free verse

Iambic pentameter, with some exceptions in syllabic stress

Strict iambic pentameter

Blank verse
17 Finish this quote: "While time ticks__"

in their chests

blank and brutal on their wrists

blank and busy on their wrists

meaninglessly
18 Who does the speaker plead to in the final line?

Jesus

His mother

His commanders

God
19 What is the tone?

Eerie, Desperate, Violent

Bitter, Tragic, Reflective

Acerbic, Violent, Uncanny

Pointed, Angry, Violent
20 Which detail best foreshadows the violence to come?

The scarred slope is menacing

Men jostle and climb to

The smoke smolders

The dawn light makes the ridge visible
21 Which of the following is used in the poem?

Understatement

Onomatopoeia

Hyperbole

Personification
22 Which collection was this poem published in?

The War Poems

Collected Poems

The Old Huntsman

Counter-Attack and Other Poems
23 How was the collection received?

Poorly, Sassoon was then hospitalized for shell shock

Well, due to its truthful and harrowing accounts of World War I.

Well, though Sassoon was then hospitalized for shell shock

Poorly, as the details were too grotesque
24 Which of the following is not a theme?

Explicitly Criticizing the British Public

Anonymity

The Horrors of Warfare

Nature
25 Which line best demonstrates the theme of Anonymity?

The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,

Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud

And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists

Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,

Attack (Sassoon poem)

by Siegfried Sassoon

Attack (Sassoon poem) Quiz

Attack (Sassoon poem) Questions and Answers

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