The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?

Charter or agreement

Complaint

Large dinner party

Excess
2 Which best characterizes this poem?

It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It makes heavy use of figurative language

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

A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty

An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker

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

A coffee shop

A military hospital

A sugarcane field

A schoolbuilding
5 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

AABAABABA

ABCBAADCD

It has no rhyme scheme

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

A dog's mouth

A watch face

A teapot

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

Pablo Neruda

W.S. Merwin

Ben Belitt

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

Drumbeats

Collars

Chocolates

Gemstones
9 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic pentameter

Anapestic hexameter

Trochaic trimeter

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

Erudite

Multifaceted

Shiny

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

Adult cruelty to children

Industrialization

Religious extremism

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

10

15

17

14
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 dictator and his allies

The snout and the bones

Laughter and death

The plant and the pollen
15 What does the word "satrap" mean?

An exclusive, government-sponsored club

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats

A subordinate ruler or official

A grand palace
16 Which type of sensory imagery is prominent in the poem's opening lines?

Taste imagery

Sound imagery

Tactile imagery

Smell 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?

Evil and oppression

Death

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 petal

A plant

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

Decaying dead bodies

A type of bird of prey

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

A flag

The smell of corpses

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

The 1970s

The early Medieval period

The mid-twentieth century

The late eighteenth century
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?

As zealous and obsessive

As sadistic and monstrous

As frivolous and willfully blind

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

Physical blow

Blunt person

Toolbox

Broken-down vehicle

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