Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

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

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

The difficulties of life

Disillusionment
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Hardy's town of origin

Current day South England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1912

1900

1879

1898
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
Philip Larkin

Robert Frost

W.H. Auden

George Eliot
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The speaker's true sense of passivity

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem
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 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.

The speaker suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She has blue eyes.

She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.

She suffered more than the speaker did.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(noun) a grouping of ash trees
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
threatening

futuristic

auspicious

lucky
10 In which season is the poem set?
Winter

Unspecified

Spring

Summer
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Persistence of Memories

The Optimism of Love

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

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

curses

conceals

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

hides

curses

chides
14 What does the starving sod represent?
The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.

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.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Cycles, rest, and family

Death, hibernation, and endings

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The setting and the facade of neutrality

The speaker's angry bitterness

The ending of the relationship

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

(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(adjective) neutral

(adjective) disengenuous
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
The poem does not rhyme

ABBA

ABCD

AABB
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

None

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

The final quatrain of Shakespearean 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

A blackbird singing in a tree

An ominous bird taking flight
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?
The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

A kind of metaphor

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

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

The ex-partner's smile

The yellow sun

The white sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"

"The change was like the knell"

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

"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

Spiritualistic

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Evangelical Christian

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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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