The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?

Excess

Complaint

Large dinner party

Charter or agreement
2 Which best characterizes this poem?

It focuses on the psyche of the speaker

It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It makes heavy use of figurative language

It embraces moral ambiguity, leaving readers unsure who to root for
3 Which best describes the poem's speaker?

An unidentified, limited first-person speaker

A dictator

A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty

An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker
4 Where are the poem's first several lines set?

A coffee shop

A military hospital

A schoolbuilding

A sugarcane field
5 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

AABAABABA

ABCBAADCD

ABBACDDCABBACDDC

It has no rhyme scheme
6 What is the dictator's palace compared to?

A dog's mouth

A diamond ring

A watch face

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

Pablo Neruda

Mark Eisner

W.S. Merwin

Ben Belitt
8 Neruda compares the palace-dwellers to "wineglasses, _____, and piping."

Chocolates

Drumbeats

Gemstones

Collars
9 What is the poem's meter?

Anapestic hexameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

It is free verse
10 What does the word "finical" mean?

Multifaceted

Erudite

Shiny

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

Fascism and authoritarianism

Industrialization

Adult cruelty to children

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 plant and its pollen"

"The snout filled with silence and slime"

"carrion, blood, and a nausea"

"the blinded, big leaves"
14 Which of the following are juxtaposed?

The plant and the pollen

Laughter and death

The dictator and his allies

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

A subordinate ruler or official

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats

A grand palace

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

Taste imagery

Smell imagery

Tactile imagery

Sound imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?

The refuge of nature

God's abandonment

Life under dictatorship

The power of the arts
18 Which is NOT one of the poem's themes?

Inequality

Death

Evil and oppression

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

"their festering surfeit of bones"

"A finical satrap conversed"

"Lament was perpetual"

"Vendetta was born"
20 Which of the following serve as a synecdochic representation in the poem?

A plant

A glove

A petal

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

A battle cry

A type of bird of prey

A brand of gun popular in fascist Spain

Decaying dead bodies
22 Neruda uses a simile to compare which of the following to a flower petal?

A flag

A military medal

The smell of corpses

A gunshot wound
23 In which era is this poem most likely set?

The early Medieval period

The late eighteenth century

The 1970s

The mid-twentieth century
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?

As vulnerable and frightened

As frivolous and willfully blind

As zealous and obsessive

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

Toolbox

Broken-down vehicle

Blunt person

Physical blow

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