The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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?

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

War Poems

The Old Huntsman
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?
He typed it up after the war

He wrote it 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?
1918

1917

1919

1916
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Criticizing Military Authority

The Trauma of War

Hell

Dehumanization
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
trench foot

shell shock

fever dreams

typhus
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
silent

singing

crying

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

Groping

Walking

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

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

seeing

abuse someone
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the unwholesome air.

the bad quality air

the dank dark tunnel

the heavy air
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Domestic

Technological

Military

Ancient
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
Verdun

No Man's Land

The Winterberg Tunnel

The Hindenburg Line
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The surrounding darkness

The soldier's wife

The battle overhead

Sleep and dreams
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1917

1918

1916

1920
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Angry, embittered, hungry

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He shouts in his face

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He savagely kicks the figure

He asks again louder
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

resilience and courage

stink and grit

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

Iambic pentameter

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)
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 rear during an offensive

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
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

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

Months earlier

In ancient times

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

memories

isolation

hell

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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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