The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

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

A soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself
2 What collection was this poem published in?
Counter-Attack and Other Poems

The Old Huntsman

Does it Matter?

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?
1917

1918

1916

1919
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Criticizing Military Authority

The Trauma of War

Dehumanization

Hell
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?
crying

singing

prying

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

Tripping

Running

Groping
9 What does groping mean in this context?
feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

walking slowly

abuse someone

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

the heavy air

the bad quality air

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

Military

Domestic

Technological
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
Verdun

The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel

No Man's Land
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness

The soldier's wife

Sleep and dreams
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1916

1918

1920

1917
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?
Night

Midday

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?
sweat and horror

sweat and terror

stink and grit

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

Blank verse

Free verse

Iambic pentameter
20 What is a rear guard?
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

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear
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

Yes

No
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
Tripping, he grabbed the wall

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

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

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
23 What is alliteration?
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

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
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

hell

stress

isolation

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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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