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 town of origin

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Ancient Southwestern England

Current day South England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1900

1912

1879

1898
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
George Eliot

Philip Larkin

Robert Frost

W.H. Auden
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?
The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.

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 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 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.
8 Define "rove."
(noun) a secret place in a forest

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

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

lucky

auspicious

threatening
10 In which season is the poem set?
Winter

Summer

Unspecified

Spring
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Facade of Neutrality

The Persistence of Memories

The Optimism of Love

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
curses

chides

casts

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

chides

curses

celebrates
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?
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 ex-lover's smile

The ending of the relationship

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The speaker's angry bitterness
17 Define "keen."
(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(adjective) neutral
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABCD

AABB

ABBA

The poem does not rhyme
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

None

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A crow coming home to roost

An ominous bird taking flight

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

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?
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 white sun

The yellow sun

The ex-partner's smile
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?
Evangelical Christian

Spiritualistic

Agnostic, but complexly so

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

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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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