The Rear-Guard Quizzes

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

A soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself

A dying soldier

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

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

The Old Huntsman

Does it Matter?

War Poems
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?

He wrote it after the war

He typed it up after the war

He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

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?

1919

1918

1916

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

Hell

Dehumanization

The Trauma of War

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

shell shock

fever dreams

trench foot

typhus
7 How is the soldier's torch described?

crying

silent

prying

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

Walking

Running

Groping

Tripping
9 What does groping mean in this context?

seeing

walking slowly

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

abuse someone
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"

the bad quality air

the unwholesome air.

the dank dark tunnel

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?

The Hindenburg Line

Verdun

No Man's Land

The Winterberg Tunnel
13 What is romanticized in the poem?

Sleep and dreams

The soldier's wife

The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?

1917

1916

1918

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 asks again louder

He shouts in his face

He savagely kicks the figure

He shakes the sleeper's arm
17 What time of day is it in the poem?

Night

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

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

Midday
18 What is in the soldier's hair?

sweat and terror

stink and grit

sweat and horror

resilience and courage
19 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter
20 What is a rear guard?

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

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 the last line of soldiers

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?

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

No
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;
23 What is alliteration?

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

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

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

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?

Hours earlier

Ten days before

Months earlier

In ancient times
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?

hell

memories

stress

isolation

The Rear-Guard

by Siegfried Sassoon

The Rear-Guard Quiz

The Rear-Guard Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Rear-Guard