Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

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

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Country folkways

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

Hardy's town of origin

Current day South England

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

1898

1900

1912
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
W.H. Auden

George Eliot

Robert Frost

Philip Larkin
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The speaker's true sense of passivity

The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
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.

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.
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

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

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

lucky

threatening

auspicious
10 In which season is the poem set?
Winter

Unspecified

Spring

Summer
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?
chides

conceals

curses

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

hides

celebrates

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

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.

Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Death, hibernation, and endings

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cycles, rest, and family
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The setting and the facade of neutrality

The speaker's angry bitterness

The ex-lover's smile

The ending of the relationship
17 Define "keen."
(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) neutral

(adjective) disengenuous

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

ABCD

AABB

The poem does not rhyme
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

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

An ominous bird taking flight

A crow coming home to roost
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
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.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.
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 ex-partner's smile

The white sun

The yellow sun

Winter
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?
Spiritualistic

Evangelical Christian

Agnostic, but complexly so

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

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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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