The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

A dying soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself
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 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

He wrote it after the war
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1917

1916

1918

1919
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
The Trauma of War

Dehumanization

Hell

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

typhus

fever dreams

trench foot
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
crying

singing

prying

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

Running

Walking

Tripping
9 What does groping mean in this context?
seeing

walking slowly

abuse someone

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the unwholesome air.

the dank dark tunnel

the heavy air

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

Military

Technological

Domestic
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
The Winterberg Tunnel

The Hindenburg Line

No Man's Land

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness

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

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful
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 shouts in his face

He savagely kicks the figure
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is nighttime in the world above

Night

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

resilience and courage

sweat and horror
19 What is the poem's meter?
Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse

Iambic pentameter
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 the last line of soldiers

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
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
No

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel

Yes

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle
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?
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

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts

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?
Hours earlier

In ancient times

Months earlier

Ten days before
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
isolation

hell

stress

memories

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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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