Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

1 Which of the following does NOT characterize Thomas Hardy's writing?
The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Country folkways

Disillusionment

The difficulties of life
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Current day South England

Hardy's town of origin

Ancient Southwestern England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1898

1879

1912

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

W.H. Auden

George Eliot

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

The speaker's true sense of passivity

The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
The speaker suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.

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 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 refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

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.
8 Define "rove."
(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
futuristic

auspicious

threatening

lucky
10 In which season is the poem set?
Winter

Spring

Summer

Unspecified
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Optimism of Love

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Persistence of Memories

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

conceals

curses

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

celebrates

hides

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

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.

Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.

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

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The ex-lover's smile
17 Define "keen."
(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) neutral

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

AABB

The poem does not rhyme

ABBA
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

None

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A crow coming home to roost

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

An ominous bird taking flight

A blackbird singing in a tree
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?
A literary device in which one word refers in part to another

A kind of metaphor

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
Winter

The yellow sun

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"

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

"The change was like the knell"

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Spiritualistic

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Evangelical Christian

Agnostic, but complexly so

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Study Guide for Neutral Tones

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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