The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

A soldier

A dying soldier

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 wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

He wrote it after the war

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

He typed it up after the war
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1917

1916

1919

1918
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Criticizing Military Authority

Dehumanization

Hell

The Trauma of War
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?
prying

crying

silent

singing
8 Fill in this quote: "__ along the tunnel, step by step"
Tripping

Walking

Running

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

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

walking slowly

seeing
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?
Technological

Domestic

Ancient

Military
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel

No Man's Land

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The soldier's wife

Sleep and dreams

The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1917

1920

1916

1918
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated
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 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 dawn in the world above

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is nighttime in the world above

Midday

Night
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

Blank verse

Free 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 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?
No

Yes

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel
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.”

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

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

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

Hours earlier

In ancient times

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

stress

isolation

hell

The Rear-Guard Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Rear-Guard is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

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.

Read the Study Guide for The Rear-Guard…