The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?
Complaint

Large dinner party

Excess

Charter or agreement
2 Which best characterizes this poem?
It focuses on the psyche of the speaker

It makes heavy use of figurative language

It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It embraces moral ambiguity, leaving readers unsure who to root for
3 Which best describes the poem's speaker?
A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty

An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker

An unidentified, limited first-person speaker

A dictator
4 Where are the poem's first several lines set?
A military hospital

A sugarcane field

A schoolbuilding

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

It has no rhyme scheme

ABBACDDCABBACDDC

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?
Pablo Neruda

Mark Eisner

Ben Belitt

W.S. Merwin
8 Neruda compares the palace-dwellers to "wineglasses, _____, and piping."
Collars

Chocolates

Gemstones

Drumbeats
9 What is the poem's meter?
Anapestic hexameter

Iambic pentameter

Trochaic trimeter

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

Multifaceted

Erudite

Shiny
11 Which of the following does the poem sharply critique?
Religious extremism

Adult cruelty to children

Industrialization

Fascism and authoritarianism
12 How many lines are in this poem?
15

14

10

17
13 Which of the following phrases does NOT contain alliteration?
"the blinded, big leaves"

"the plant and its pollen"

"The snout filled with silence and slime"

"carrion, blood, and a nausea"
14 Which of the following are juxtaposed?
The plant and the pollen

The snout and the bones

Laughter and death

The dictator and his allies
15 What does the word "satrap" mean?
A subordinate ruler or official

An exclusive, government-sponsored club

A grand palace

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

Taste imagery

Sound imagery

Smell imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?
God's abandonment

Life under dictatorship

The power of the arts

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

Inequality

Evil and oppression

Gender
19 Which of the following is an instance of hyperbole?
"Vendetta was born"

"their festering surfeit of bones"

"A finical satrap conversed"

"Lament was perpetual"
20 Which of the following serve as a synecdochic representation in the poem?
A petal

A glove

A mouth

A plant
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 military medal

A flag

The smell of corpses

A gunshot wound
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 frivolous and willfully blind

As sadistic and monstrous

As zealous and obsessive

As vulnerable and frightened
25 What does the word "bludgeon" mean?
Toolbox

Physical blow

Blunt person

Broken-down vehicle

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