Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

1 Which of the following does NOT characterize Thomas Hardy's writing?
The difficulties of life

Disillusionment

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Country folkways
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Current day South England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Hardy's town of origin

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

1912

1879

1900
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 ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The speaker's true sense of passivity
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
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.

After breaking up with his ex-partner, the speaker maintains a facade of passivity that does not quite manage to conceal his bitterness.
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She suffered more than the speaker did.

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

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

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

auspicious

threatening

lucky
10 In which season is the poem set?
Winter

Spring

Unspecified

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

The Facade of Neutrality

The Persistence of Memories

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment
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?
curses

celebrates

hides

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

Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.

The lower-class people of Wessex suffered more than the upper-class.

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?
Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Cycles, rest, and family

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Death, hibernation, and endings
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ending of the relationship

The ex-lover's smile

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The speaker's angry bitterness
17 Define "keen."
(adjective) neutral

(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AABB

The poem does not rhyme

ABBA

ABCD
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 raven arriving at one's doorstep

A blackbird singing in a tree

An ominous bird taking flight

A crow coming home to roost
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?
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

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

Winter

The ex-partner's smile

The yellow 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?
Evangelical Christian

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Agnostic, but complexly so

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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