The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?

Large dinner party

Charter or agreement

Excess

Complaint
2 Which best characterizes this poem?

It embraces moral ambiguity, leaving readers unsure who to root for

It makes heavy use of figurative language

It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It focuses on the psyche of the speaker
3 Which best describes the poem's speaker?

An unidentified, limited first-person speaker

An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker

A dictator

A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty
4 Where are the poem's first several lines set?

A sugarcane field

A schoolbuilding

A military hospital

A coffee shop
5 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBACDDCABBACDDC

AABAABABA

It has no rhyme scheme

ABCBAADCD
6 What is the dictator's palace compared to?

A watch face

A diamond ring

A dog's mouth

A teapot
7 Who is the translator of the version discussed in this guide?

Ben Belitt

Pablo Neruda

W.S. Merwin

Mark Eisner
8 Neruda compares the palace-dwellers to "wineglasses, _____, and piping."

Drumbeats

Chocolates

Gemstones

Collars
9 What is the poem's meter?

It is free verse

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

Anapestic hexameter
10 What does the word "finical" mean?

Picky

Shiny

Multifaceted

Erudite
11 Which of the following does the poem sharply critique?

Adult cruelty to children

Industrialization

Fascism and authoritarianism

Religious extremism
12 How many lines are in this poem?

14

17

15

10
13 Which of the following phrases does NOT contain alliteration?

"The snout filled with silence and slime"

"carrion, blood, and a nausea"

"the blinded, big leaves"

"the plant and its pollen"
14 Which of the following are juxtaposed?

The dictator and his allies

The plant and the pollen

Laughter and death

The snout and the bones
15 What does the word "satrap" mean?

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats

A subordinate ruler or official

A grand palace

An exclusive, government-sponsored club
16 Which type of sensory imagery is prominent in the poem's opening lines?

Sound imagery

Tactile imagery

Taste imagery

Smell imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?

The power of the arts

Life under dictatorship

God's abandonment

The refuge of nature
18 Which is NOT one of the poem's themes?

Death

Evil and oppression

Gender

Inequality
19 Which of the following is an instance of hyperbole?

"Vendetta was born"

"their festering surfeit of bones"

"Lament was perpetual"

"A finical satrap conversed"
20 Which of the following serve as a synecdochic representation in the poem?

A mouth

A plant

A petal

A glove
21 What does the word "carrion" mean?

Decaying dead bodies

A brand of gun popular in fascist Spain

A battle cry

A type of bird of prey
22 Neruda uses a simile to compare which of the following to a flower petal?

A flag

A gunshot wound

A military medal

The smell of corpses
23 In which era is this poem most likely set?

The early Medieval period

The late eighteenth century

The mid-twentieth century

The 1970s
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?

As vulnerable and frightened

As zealous and obsessive

As frivolous and willfully blind

As sadistic and monstrous
25 What does the word "bludgeon" mean?

Physical blow

Blunt person

Toolbox

Broken-down vehicle

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