Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

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

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

The difficulties of life

Country folkways
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Hardy's town of origin

Current day South England

Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1879

1912

1898

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

W.H. Auden

George Eliot

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

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's true sense of passivity

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 has blue eyes.

She suffered more than the speaker did.

She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.
8 Define "rove."
(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

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

auspicious

lucky

threatening
10 In which season is the poem set?
Unspecified

Spring

Winter

Summer
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Persistence of Memories

The Facade of Neutrality

The Optimism of Love
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?
hides

celebrates

curses

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

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.

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Death, hibernation, and endings

Cycles, rest, and family

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection
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."
(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) neutral

(noun) a heartfelt cry

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

The poem does not rhyme

ABBA

AABB
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
None

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A blackbird singing in a tree

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

An ominous bird taking flight

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 cruel but it pays off.

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

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.
22 What is polysyndeton?
The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

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

A kind of metaphor
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The ex-partner's smile

The white sun

The yellow sun

Winter
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"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"

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

Evangelical Christian

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

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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