Attack (Sassoon poem) Quizzes

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

First-person

Third-person

Second-person

Second and third-person
2 Describe the speaker.

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

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.

The speaker is Sassoon himself.

The speaker is a commanding officer.
3 How many lines does the poem have?

12

13

14

11
4 What poetic form does "Attack" most closely resemble?

Villanelle

Sestina

Sonnet

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

Love poem

Shakespeare

Aubade

Sonnet
6 Describe the sunlight in the poem.

Strong and blinding

Bright purple, glowing

Wild purple, glowering

Pale yellow, filtering
7 Define "dun"

A bright green color

The state of being finished

A horse

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

The soldiers

The ridge

The trench

The tanks
9 Which is not an example of alliteration?

The barrage roars and lifts

time ticks blank and busy

Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud

The menacing scarred slope
10 What is alliteration?

The use of "like" or "as" to make a comparison.

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
11 Why are the soldiers "clumsily bowed"?

They bow to their superiors

They are deathly afraid.

They are weighed down by gear.

They have been crippled.
12 What is a barrage?

A battlefield

Soldiers' accommodations

A place where military gear is stored

A concentrated artillery bombardment over a wide area
13 What does not get personified in the poem?

Hope

The mud

The slope

The sunlight
14 Which is example of personification?

They leave their trenches, going over the top,

And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists, / Flounders in mud

At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun

Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
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?

Strict iambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter, with some exceptions in syllabic stress

Blank verse

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

blank and brutal on their wrists

blank and busy on their wrists

meaninglessly

in their chests
18 Who does the speaker plead to in the final line?

Jesus

God

His mother

His commanders
19 What is the tone?

Acerbic, Violent, Uncanny

Eerie, Desperate, Violent

Pointed, Angry, Violent

Bitter, Tragic, Reflective
20 Which detail best foreshadows the violence to come?

The smoke smolders

The scarred slope is menacing

Men jostle and climb to

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

Understatement

Hyperbole

Personification

Onomatopoeia
22 Which collection was this poem published in?

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

The Old Huntsman

Collected Poems

The War Poems
23 How was the collection received?

Well, though Sassoon was then hospitalized for shell shock

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

Poorly, 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

Nature

The Horrors of Warfare
25 Which line best demonstrates the theme of Anonymity?

And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists

Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,

The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,

Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud

Attack (Sassoon poem)

by Siegfried Sassoon

Attack (Sassoon poem) Quiz

Attack (Sassoon poem) Questions and Answers

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