The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

A soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself

A dying soldier
2 What collection was this poem published in?
Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Does it Matter?

The Old Huntsman

War Poems
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?
He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle

He typed it up after the war
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1918

1916

1919

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

Criticizing Military Authority

Hell

Dehumanization
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

singing

silent

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

Groping

Tripping

Running
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 bad quality air

the heavy air

the unwholesome air.

the dank dark tunnel
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Domestic

Technological

Ancient

Military
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 surrounding darkness

The battle overhead

The soldier's wife

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

1916

1917

1920
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He asks again louder

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He shouts in his face

He savagely kicks the figure
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Midday

Night

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

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?
Blank verse

Free verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

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

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
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
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

No
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

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

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

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

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

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

Hours earlier

Ten days before

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

stress

isolation

hell

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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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