Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

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

The difficulties of life

Country folkways

The optimistic view that God will save humanity
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Current day South England

Hardy's town of origin
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1912

1898

1879

1900
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
W.H. Auden

Robert Frost

Philip Larkin

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

She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She suffered more than the speaker did.

She has blue eyes.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a secret place in a forest

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

lucky

threatening

auspicious
10 In which season is the poem set?
Spring

Summer

Winter

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

The Persistence of Memories

The Facade of Neutrality

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment
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?
celebrates

curses

chides

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

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Death, hibernation, and endings
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) disengenuous

(adjective) neutral

(adjective) sharp and well-defined
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
The poem does not rhyme

AABB

ABBA

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

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

None
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A blackbird singing in a tree

A crow coming home to roost

An ominous bird taking flight
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love is cruel but it pays off.

Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

Love is capable of harm, but one must choose to risk one's heart.
22 What is polysyndeton?
The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

A kind of metaphor

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?
Winter

The yellow sun

The ex-partner's smile

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

"The change was like the knell"

"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

Evangelical Christian

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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