The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

A soldier

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

Definitely Sassoon himself
2 What collection was this poem published in?
The Old Huntsman

War Poems

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Does it Matter?
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 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?
1918

1916

1917

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

Dehumanization

The Trauma of War

Hell
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
fever dreams

shell shock

typhus

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

crying

singing

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

Tripping

Running

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

walking slowly

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

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

the bad quality air

the dank dark tunnel

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

Technological

Domestic

Ancient
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?
The surrounding darkness

The soldier's wife

The battle overhead

Sleep and dreams
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1918

1917

1920

1916
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He asks again louder

He savagely kicks the figure

He shouts in his face

He shakes the sleeper's arm
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

Midday

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
sweat and terror

stink and grit

sweat and horror

resilience and courage
19 What is the poem's meter?
Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse

Iambic pentameter
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?
It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel

Yes

No

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;

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

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tripping, he grabbed the wall
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?
Hours earlier

Months earlier

In ancient times

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

isolation

memories

stress

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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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