The Death Bed Quizzes

The Death Bed Quiz

1 Which best describes the poem's speaker?
Unidentified, third-person

Omniscient, third-person; addresses the soldier using second-person

Omniscient, third-person; addresses the reader using second-person

All-knowing, first-person, addresses the reader using second-person
2 Describe the form.
Seven sextets

Seven stanzas composed of different lengths

Six sextets

Six stanzas composed of different lengths
3 What senses are engaged in this poem?
Visual, tactile, auditory

Auditory, gustatory, olfactory

All senses

Visual
4 Which of the following is not a metaphor in the poem?
"in the wings of sleep"

"his mortal shore / Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death"

"silence heaped / Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls"

Water
5 Which best describes a metaphor?
A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated using the words "like" or "as"

A description of one thing by way of another, unrelated thing

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

A word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effec
6 Which is not an example of alliteration?
"That soak the woods; not the harsh rain"

"Light many lamps and gather round his bed. / Lend him your...will to live"

"Silence and safety"

"And there was silence in the summer night; / Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep"
7 What is alliteration?
A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated

A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated using the words "like" or "as"

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

A word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect
8 What is the reader implored to do?
Enlist and fight.

Protest the war by writing letters.

Care for the dying soldier's physical and energetic needs.

Row down a river.
9 What is the major conflict of the poem?
World War One

Death does not care about justice

Whether or not the young soldier will encounter his death

World War Two
10 Which quote best foreshadows the soldier's death?
"Rain—he could hear it rustling through the dark;"

"He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped"

"Shuddering because that evil thing had passed."

"Gently and slowly washing life away"
11 Which is an example of onomatopoeia?
thudding

trickling

music

flickered
12 What collection was this poem published in?
The Old Huntsman and Other Poems

The War Poems of Sigfried Sassoon

The Daffodil Murderer

Counter-Attack and Other Poems
13 What is Sassoon best known for today?
His angry and compassionate anti-war poems

His satires

His romantic pastoral poetry

His novels
14 Which fellow soldier-poet named "The Death Bed" as the "finest poem" in the collection?
Robert Graves

Wilfred Owen

Rupert Brooke

Isaac Rosenberg
15 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Criticizing the Military Establishment

Death and Sleep as a Journey

Mortality

Satirizing military authority
16 Who or what is personified in the poem?
the soldier

death

death and the soldier's pain

an animal that broke into the ward
17 What is personification?
A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated using the words "like" or "as"

the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

A word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
18 What does water symbolize?
Tranquility

The soldier's acceptance of his death

Summertime

The fluid state of the soldier's consciousness
19 Why are the guns at the end specified as "the"?
They refer to the conflict of World War II

They refer to the guns the soldier used in battle

They refer to the conflict of World War I

There is no reason for the specification
20 Why is death not capitalized in the poem?
Unspecified, but perhaps to suggest a humble sense

Unspecified, but perhaps to suggest a weak sense

Death is capitalized in the poem

Because it is an inanimate process.
21 Where in the poem does Sassoon clarify that the drowsing man is dying?
In the final line

In the second-to-last stanza

In the first stanza

Never
22 Which words become an anaphora?
Summer and night

Water and summer

Light and summer

Water and night
23 Finish this quote: "Lipped by the inward, moonless__"
starless sky

waves of pain

night sky

waves of death
24 What is anaphora?
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
25 Why does the speaker give a false sense of hope that the soldier will live?
To increase the poem's tension by prolonging the death

To show that justice prevails when there is hope

To show that there is always hope

To cruelly trick the reader

The Death Bed Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Death Bed is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

Study Guide for The Death Bed

The Death Bed study guide contains a biography of Siegfried Sassoon, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Read the Study Guide for The Death Bed…