The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

Definitely Sassoon himself

A dying 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?

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 by hand while fighting in the trenches

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

He wrote it after the war
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

Dehumanization

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

typhus

fever dreams

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

singing

crying

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

Tripping

Walking

Running
9 What does groping mean in this context?
abuse someone

seeing

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

walking slowly
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the heavy air

the unwholesome 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?
The Winterberg Tunnel

Verdun

No Man's Land

The Hindenburg Line
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
Sleep and dreams

The soldier's wife

The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1916

1918

1917

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

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry

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

He savagely kicks the figure

He asks again louder

He shakes the sleeper's arm
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above

Midday

Night

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

resilience and courage

stink and grit

sweat and terror
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 front

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 rear during an offensive
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

No

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

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

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

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

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts

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
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Hours earlier

In ancient times

Months earlier

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

hell

memories

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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