The Rear-Guard Quizzes

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

A soldier

A dying soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself

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?

The Old Huntsman

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

War Poems
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?

1916

1919

1918

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

trench foot

fever dreams

typhus
7 How is the soldier's torch described?

silent

singing

prying

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

Walking

Tripping

Groping

Running
9 What does groping mean in this context?

walking slowly

abuse someone

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

seeing
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"

the bad quality air

the heavy air

the dank dark tunnel

the unwholesome air.
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?

Domestic

Military

Technological

Ancient
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?

The Hindenburg Line

No Man's Land

Verdun

The Winterberg Tunnel
13 What is romanticized in the poem?

Sleep and dreams

The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead

The soldier's wife
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?

1916

1917

1920

1918
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 savagely kicks the figure

He asks again louder

He shouts in his face

He shakes the sleeper's arm
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

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

Midday

Night
18 What is in the soldier's hair?

sweat and terror

sweat and horror

resilience and courage

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

Free verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter
20 What is a rear guard?

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

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

Yes

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

No

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

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

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”
23 What is alliteration?

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

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?

In ancient times

Months earlier

Hours earlier

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

isolation

memories

hell

stress

The Rear-Guard

by Siegfried Sassoon

The Rear-Guard Quiz

The Rear-Guard Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Rear-Guard