Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

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

Disillusionment

Country folkways

The optimistic view that God will save humanity
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Hardy's town of origin

Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Current day South England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1900

1879

1898

1912
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
W.H. Auden

Philip Larkin

George Eliot

Robert Frost
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's true sense of passivity

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The speaker's preference for a muted palette
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.

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

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 suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.

She has blue eyes.

She suffered more than the speaker did.

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

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(noun) a secret place in a forest

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

auspicious

threatening

futuristic
10 In which season is the poem set?
Spring

Unspecified

Winter

Summer
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Facade of Neutrality

The Optimism of Love

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Persistence of Memories
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
chides

casts

conceals

curses
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 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 lower-class people of Wessex suffered more than the upper-class.

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Cycles, rest, and family

Death, hibernation, and endings

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cookies, Santa, and celebration
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ex-lover's smile

The ending of the relationship

The speaker's angry bitterness

The setting and the facade of neutrality
17 Define "keen."
(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(adjective) neutral

(adjective) disengenuous

(noun) a heartfelt cry
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABCD

AABB

ABBA

The poem does not rhyme
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

None
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A crow coming home to roost

An ominous bird taking flight

A blackbird singing in a tree

A raven arriving at one's doorstep
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

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

A kind of metaphor

A literary device in which one word refers in part to another

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The yellow sun

Winter

The ex-partner's smile

The white sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"

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

"The change was like the knell"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Agnostic, but complexly so

Evangelical Christian

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

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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