The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

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

A dying soldier

A soldier
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 by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle

He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

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

1919

1917

1916
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Hell

Dehumanization

Criticizing Military Authority

The Trauma of War
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
typhus

fever dreams

trench foot

shell shock
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
singing

silent

prying

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

Tripping

Walking

Running
9 What does groping mean in this context?
walking slowly

seeing

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 dank dark tunnel

the heavy air

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

Domestic

Military

Technological
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 soldier's wife

The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1917

1920

1916

1918
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 savagely kicks the figure

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He shouts in his face

He asks again louder
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Midday

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

Night
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
stink and grit

sweat and horror

resilience and courage

sweat and terror
19 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse
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 rear

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the front
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
No

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

Yes

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

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

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

“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

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

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

In ancient times

Ten days before

Months earlier
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
memories

stress

hell

isolation

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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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