The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?

Charter or agreement

Large dinner party

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?

A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty

An unidentified, limited first-person speaker

An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker

A dictator
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

It has no rhyme scheme

ABBACDDCABBACDDC

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

A diamond ring

A teapot

A watch face

A dog's mouth
7 Who is the translator of the version discussed in this guide?

Ben Belitt

Pablo Neruda

Mark Eisner

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

Collars

Chocolates

Drumbeats

Gemstones
9 What is the poem's meter?

It is free verse

Iambic pentameter

Anapestic hexameter

Trochaic trimeter
10 What does the word "finical" mean?

Picky

Erudite

Multifaceted

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

Industrialization

Fascism and authoritarianism

Adult cruelty to children

Religious extremism
12 How many lines are in this poem?

17

10

14

15
13 Which of the following phrases does NOT contain alliteration?

"the plant and its pollen"

"carrion, blood, and a nausea"

"The snout filled with silence and slime"

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

The dictator and his allies

Laughter and death

The plant and the pollen

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

A grand palace

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats

An exclusive, government-sponsored club

A subordinate ruler or official
16 Which type of sensory imagery is prominent in the poem's opening lines?

Tactile imagery

Smell imagery

Taste imagery

Sound imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?

God's abandonment

The power of the arts

Life under dictatorship

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

Gender

Inequality

Death

Evil and oppression
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 mouth

A plant

A petal

A glove
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 mid-twentieth century

The 1970s

The early Medieval period

The late eighteenth century
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?

As zealous and obsessive

As vulnerable and frightened

As frivolous and willfully blind

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

Physical blow

Broken-down vehicle

Blunt person

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