This Is Just To Say Quizzes

This Is Just To Say Quiz

1 What is the tone of the poem?
Cynical and sharp

Happy and upbeat

Straightforward and regretful

Dark and moody
2 Which of the following is a symbol in the poem?
Apples

The kitchen sink

Oranges

The icebox
3 What style was Williams seeking to imitate?
Gary Snyder's poems about the North Cascades mountain range

A note left on the kitchen counter by his wife

Shakespeare's love sonnets

Bashō's haikus about autumn
4 What is a major stylistic feature of the poem?
A prominent inclusion of dashes

The use of enjambment

Elaborate wordplay

Complex metaphors
5 How many stanzas does the poem have?
Four

Eighteen

Three

Six
6 What do plums represent in the poem?
Farm labor

The speaker's love for his wife

Everyday pleasures

Religious guilt
7 Which of the following lines contains alliteration?
"you were probably"

"so sweet"

"and which"

"I have eaten"
8 What is the genre of the poem?
War epic

Erasure poetry

Imagist poetry

Pastoral poetry
9 What is the poem's setting?
A doctor's office

An orchard

The speaker's kitchen

The speaker's farm
10 What is the poem's form and meter?
The poem is a haiku.

The poem is a sonnet.

The poem is a villanelle.

The poem is written in free verse.
11 What fruit does the speaker guiltily consume?
Plums

Pears

Apples

Peaches
12 What does the word "icebox" refer to?
It refers to an ice chest.

It is a colloquial term for a meat locker.

It is an older term for refrigerator.

It refers to an ice skating rink.
13 What is the poem's main conflict?
The speaker's struggle to not eat apples

The speaker's inability to cook

The speaker's guilt over eating plums

The speaker's marital struggles
14 When does the poem's climax occur?
In the third stanza

In the second stanza

Before the poem has begun

In the first stanza
15 What role does understatement play in the poem?
The speaker confesses his consumption of the plums like a crime

The speaker compares his consumption of the plums to a buglarly

The speaker imagines his wife's anger like a tidal wave

The speaker describes the icebox like a vast arctic tundra
16 What type of stanza does the poem have?
Quintains

Quatrains

Octaves

Monostiches
17 What is a recurring motif in the poem?
Happiness

Frustration

Regret

Envy
18 Which of the following is NOT a theme in the poem?
Guilt

Time

Taste

Communication
19 When was the poem published?
1983

1938

1933

1988
20 Which of the following poets also used enjambment prominently in their work?
Tony Hoagland

All of the following

Billy Collins

Jennifer O'Grady
21 Which of the following words does the speaker NOT use to describe the taste of the plums?
Saccharine

Sweet

Cold

Delicious
22 Why does the speaker end with a description of the plums' taste?
To reveal that he feels no guilt

To highlight his lack of enjoyment of them

To show the lingering memory it left behind

To describe their unremarkable flavor
23 What is the title of Tony Hoagland's poem about space travel?
"Jet"

"Lift Off"

"Booster Rockets"

"Rocket Fuel"
24 In her poem "Moths," what does Jennifer O'Grady depict?
A mother–daughter relationship

Moths fluttering around a back-porch lightbulb

The speaker's fear of the dark

Moths emerging from cocoons
25 Which term best characterizes the style of the poem?
Mysterious

Opaque

Baroque

Direct

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This Is Just To Say study guide contains a biography of William Carlos Williams, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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