The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

Definitely Sassoon himself

A soldier

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?

War Poems

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

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

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 by hand while fighting in the trenches
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1916

1917

1918

1919
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Dehumanization

Hell

Criticizing Military Authority

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

fever dreams

typhus

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

prying

silent

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

Tripping

Running

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

abuse someone

seeing

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?
Military

Ancient

Technological

Domestic
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
No Man's Land

The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
Sleep and dreams

The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness

The soldier's wife
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1920

1916

1918

1917
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Angry, embittered, hungry

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 shouts in his face

He asks again louder

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

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

sweat and terror

sweat and horror

resilience and courage
19 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Iambic pentameter

Blank verse

Free verse
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 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 during an offensive
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

No

Yes
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?
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?
isolation

hell

stress

memories

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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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