The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?

Large dinner party

Charter or agreement

Complaint

Excess
2 Which best characterizes this poem?

It makes heavy use of figurative language

It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It focuses on the psyche of the speaker

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

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 coffee shop

A schoolbuilding

A sugarcane field

A military hospital
5 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABCBAADCD

ABBACDDCABBACDDC

It has no rhyme scheme

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

A teapot

A dog's mouth

A watch face

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

W.S. Merwin

Pablo Neruda

Ben Belitt

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

Gemstones

Collars

Drumbeats

Chocolates
9 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic pentameter

It is free verse

Trochaic trimeter

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

Shiny

Erudite

Multifaceted

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

Fascism and authoritarianism

Religious extremism

Adult cruelty to children

Industrialization
12 How many lines are in this poem?

17

14

10

15
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 plant and the pollen

The snout and the bones

The dictator and his allies

Laughter and death
15 What does the word "satrap" mean?

A subordinate ruler or official

A grand palace

An exclusive, government-sponsored club

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats
16 Which type of sensory imagery is prominent in the poem's opening lines?

Smell imagery

Tactile imagery

Taste imagery

Sound imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?

Life under dictatorship

God's abandonment

The refuge of nature

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

Gender

Death

Evil and oppression

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

"their festering surfeit of bones"

"Vendetta was born"

"Lament was perpetual"

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

A glove

A plant

A petal

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

A type of bird of prey

Decaying dead bodies

A brand of gun popular in fascist Spain

A battle cry
22 Neruda uses a simile to compare which of the following to a flower petal?

A gunshot wound

The smell of corpses

A military medal

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

The early Medieval period

The mid-twentieth century

The late eighteenth century

The 1970s
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?

As zealous and obsessive

As sadistic and monstrous

As vulnerable and frightened

As frivolous and willfully blind
25 What does the word "bludgeon" mean?

Broken-down vehicle

Physical blow

Toolbox

Blunt person

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