The Listeners Quizzes

The Listeners Quiz

1 Which of these best describes the role of the Traveller in the poem?
A foil for the listeners

A cautionary tale

A stand-in for the speaker

A symbolic figure
2 What physical and biographical details do we get about the Traveller?
He's tall, blonde, and probably Nordic

He has grey eyes

He's come a long way and appears tired

He's been searching for the listeners for years
3 How are we told the listeners "answer" to the Traveller?
With inarticulate sounds

With their "stillness"

They order him to leave

None
4 Why does the Traveller leave?
His horse "whinnies and cries"

He feels "their strangeness"

He decides that he's accomplished his goal

He hears shouts "clamoring in the distance"
5 To what literary tradition does "The Listeners" belong?
Impressionist poetry

Modernist poetry

Georgian poetry

Surrealist poetry
6 Which of the following statements about the meter of "The Listeners" is true?
It employs classic metrical patterns

The meter alternates with the rhyme

The poem falls generally into iambic pentameter

There is no meter
7 In his personal life, Walter de la Mare
Led an entirely reclusive life and abhorred publicity

Was a reckless bohemian in his youth, later a family man

Was troubled and often very depressed

Led a relatively stable, conventional life
8 Walter de la Mare was well-versed in and influenced by
Ancient Chinese poetry

The works of his modernist contemporaries such as T.S. Eliot

Greek and Roman philosophy, especially stoicism

Teutonic and classical mythology
9 The tone of "The Listeners" is best described as
Revolting

Eerie and unsettling

Terrifying

Chaotic and absurd
10 The titular "listeners" are
An imagined group of the speaker's enemies

Never described by the speaker

Ambiguously ghostly beings

Angry spirits of the dead
11 The Traveller is "the last man left ______"
Unafraid

Alive

Standing

Awake
12 Which of the following adjectives is not used to describe the natural world in the poem?
Leafy

Cloudy

Starry

Quiet
13 The speaker's use of "Ay" in line 33 is an instance of
Alliteration

Anaphora

Assonance

Apostrophe
14 The line "Of the forest's ferny floor" does not contain
Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

Trochaic meter

Assonance
15 _____ is associated heavily with silence in the poem
Moonlight

Windows

Doors

The Traveller's horse
16 The setting of "The Listeners" is
A crowded village

A wooded mountainside

An isolated forest

A grassy knoll
17 How many times does the Traveller knock on the listeners' door?
Five times

Three times

Once

Twice
18 What is the effect of the words "thronging" and "host" as used to describe the listeners?
Makes them seem inviting, if shy

Demonstrates their dislike of the Traveller

Gives the impression of an ominous, homogeneous crowd

Conveys their frustration at being unable to speak
19 In context, the word "turf" here means
Forest floor

Grass

Piles of leaves

Mossy rocks
20 The listeners reside in
A large castle surrounded by a moat

A house large enough to have a turrett

A small cottage

An ominous, dilapidated building
21 The phrase "But no one descended to the Traveller" can be paraphrased as
No one acknowledged his presence

Nobody spoke to him

He received no sign that there was anyone home

No one came down to greet him
22 The phrase "the silence surged softly backwards" is an example of
Hyperbole

Metaphorical language

Onomatopoeia

Personification
23 Besides "The Listeners," Walter de la Mare is best known for
His romantic-style paintings

His re-writing of classic fables

His short horror fiction and writing for children

His books of sonnetts
24 The Georgian Poets are
A group of poets who participated in the literary salons at Bloomsbury in London

A group of poets characterized by their acute psychological portraits

A group of poets characterized by their hatred of modernism

A group of poets published in a series of anthologies by the same name
25 In classical mythology, grey eyes signified
Bravery

A mercurial nature

Wisdom

Cowardice