Neutral Tones Quizzes

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Neutral Tones Quiz

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

The difficulties of life

Disillusionment

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Country folkways
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?

Current day South England

Hardy's town of origin

Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?

1912

1898

1879

1900
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?

George Eliot

Robert Frost

W.H. Auden

Philip Larkin
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The speaker's true sense of passivity
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?

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.

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

The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.
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 suffered more than the speaker did.

She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She has blue eyes.
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

threatening

futuristic

auspicious
10 In which season is the poem set?

Unspecified

Summer

Winter

Spring
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Facade of Neutrality

The Persistence of Memories

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

curses

conceals

chides

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

chides

hides

celebrates

curses
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.

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

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?

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Death, hibernation, and endings

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cycles, rest, and family
16 What is revealed in the first line?

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The ending of the relationship

The ex-lover's smile

The speaker's angry bitterness
17 Define "keen."

(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) neutral

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) sharp and well-defined
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

The poem does not rhyme

ABBA

AABB

ABCD
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

None

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?

An ominous bird taking flight

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A blackbird singing in a tree

A crow coming home to roost
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?

Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.

Love is capable of harm, but one must choose to risk one's heart.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

Love is cruel but it pays off.
22 What is polysyndeton?

A kind of metaphor

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

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 white sun

The ex-partner's smile

Winter

The yellow sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?

"The change was like the knell"

"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"

"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?

Agnostic, but complexly so

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Spiritualistic

Evangelical Christian

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