The Listeners Quizzes

The Listeners Quiz

1 Which of these best describes the role of the Traveller in the poem?

A stand-in for the speaker

A cautionary tale

A symbolic figure

A foil for the listeners
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 been searching for the listeners for years

He's come a long way and appears tired
3 How are we told the listeners "answer" to the Traveller?

None

With their "stillness"

They order him to leave

With inarticulate sounds
4 Why does the Traveller leave?

He decides that he's accomplished his goal

He hears shouts "clamoring in the distance"

He feels "their strangeness"

His horse "whinnies and cries"
5 To what literary tradition does "The Listeners" belong?

Modernist poetry

Georgian poetry

Impressionist poetry

Surrealist poetry
6 Which of the following statements about the meter of "The Listeners" is true?

There is no meter

The poem falls generally into iambic pentameter

The meter alternates with the rhyme

It employs classic metrical patterns
7 In his personal life, Walter de la Mare

Led a relatively stable, conventional life

Was troubled and often very depressed

Led an entirely reclusive life and abhorred publicity

Was a reckless bohemian in his youth, later a family man
8 Walter de la Mare was well-versed in and influenced by

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

Greek and Roman philosophy, especially stoicism

Ancient Chinese poetry

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

Chaotic and absurd

Revolting

Terrifying

Eerie and unsettling
10 The titular "listeners" are

Ambiguously ghostly beings

Never described by the speaker

An imagined group of the speaker's enemies

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

Awake

Unafraid

Alive

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

Cloudy

Quiet

Starry

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

Alliteration

Assonance

Apostrophe

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

Alliteration

Onomatopoeia

Trochaic meter

Assonance
15 _____ is associated heavily with silence in the poem

Windows

Doors

The Traveller's horse

Moonlight
16 The setting of "The Listeners" is

An isolated forest

A wooded mountainside

A crowded village

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

Five times

Three times

Twice

Once
18 What is the effect of the words "thronging" and "host" as used to describe the listeners?

Makes them seem inviting, if shy

Conveys their frustration at being unable to speak

Gives the impression of an ominous, homogeneous crowd

Demonstrates their dislike of the Traveller
19 In context, the word "turf" here means

Mossy rocks

Piles of leaves

Forest floor

Grass
20 The listeners reside in

A small cottage

An ominous, dilapidated building

A house large enough to have a turrett

A large castle surrounded by a moat
21 The phrase "But no one descended to the Traveller" can be paraphrased as

Nobody spoke to him

No one came down to greet him

He received no sign that there was anyone home

No one acknowledged his presence
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 short horror fiction and writing for children

His books of sonnetts

His re-writing of classic fables

His romantic-style paintings
24 The Georgian Poets are

A group of poets published in a series of anthologies by the same name

A group of poets characterized by their hatred of modernism

A group of poets characterized by their acute psychological portraits

A group of poets who participated in the literary salons at Bloomsbury in London
25 In classical mythology, grey eyes signified

Bravery

Wisdom

A mercurial nature

Cowardice