The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
Definitely Sassoon himself

A dying soldier

A soldier

An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.
2 What collection was this poem published in?
Does it Matter?

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

War Poems

The Old Huntsman
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?
He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

He typed it up after the war

He wrote it by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1918

1919

1916

1917
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
The Trauma of War

Hell

Dehumanization

Criticizing Military Authority
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
trench foot

typhus

shell shock

fever dreams
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
silent

singing

prying

crying
8 Fill in this quote: "__ along the tunnel, step by step"
Running

Groping

Tripping

Walking
9 What does groping mean in this context?
feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

abuse someone

seeing

walking slowly
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the dank dark tunnel

the bad quality air

the unwholesome air.

the heavy air
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Ancient

Technological

Military

Domestic
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
No Man's Land

The Winterberg Tunnel

The Hindenburg Line

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead

The soldier's wife

Sleep and dreams
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1918

1917

1916

1920
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He shakes the sleeper's arm

He asks again louder

He savagely kicks the figure

He shouts in his face
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Midday

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above

Night

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is nighttime in the world above
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
resilience and courage

sweat and terror

sweat and horror

stink and grit
19 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter

Free verse

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)
20 What is a rear guard?
a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear during an offensive

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the front

a part of a military force that protects the last line of soldiers
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
No

Yes

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;

Tripping, he grabbed the wall
23 What is alliteration?
symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts

a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated

the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Ten days before

Months earlier

In ancient times

Hours earlier
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
isolation

memories

hell

stress

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Study Guide for The Rear-Guard

The Rear-Guard study guide contains a biography of Siegfried Sassoon, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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