This Is Just To Say Quizzes

This Is Just To Say Quiz

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

Dark and moody

Straightforward and regretful

Happy and upbeat
2 Which of the following is a symbol in the poem?
Oranges

Apples

The icebox

The kitchen sink
3 What style was Williams seeking to imitate?
Bashō's haikus about autumn

Gary Snyder's poems about the North Cascades mountain range

A note left on the kitchen counter by his wife

Shakespeare's love sonnets
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?
Six

Four

Three

Eighteen
6 What do plums represent in the poem?
Religious guilt

Farm labor

The speaker's love for his wife

Everyday pleasures
7 Which of the following lines contains alliteration?
"I have eaten"

"and which"

"you were probably"

"so sweet"
8 What is the genre of the poem?
Imagist poetry

Erasure poetry

Pastoral poetry

War epic
9 What is the poem's setting?
The speaker's kitchen

A doctor's office

An orchard

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

The poem is a villanelle.

The poem is written in free verse.

The poem is a haiku.
11 What fruit does the speaker guiltily consume?
Pears

Plums

Peaches

Apples
12 What does the word "icebox" refer to?
It is a colloquial term for a meat locker.

It refers to an ice chest.

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 guilt over eating plums

The speaker's marital struggles

The speaker's inability to cook
14 When does the poem's climax occur?
In the second stanza

Before the poem has begun

In the first stanza

In the third stanza
15 What role does understatement play in the poem?
The speaker compares his consumption of the plums to a buglarly

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

The speaker confesses his consumption of the plums like a crime

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

Quintains

Octaves

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

Regret

Happiness

Frustration
18 Which of the following is NOT a theme in the poem?
Time

Communication

Guilt

Taste
19 When was the poem published?
1988

1938

1983

1933
20 Which of the following poets also used enjambment prominently in their work?
Billy Collins

Tony Hoagland

Jennifer O'Grady

All of the following
21 Which of the following words does the speaker NOT use to describe the taste of the plums?
Sweet

Saccharine

Cold

Delicious
22 Why does the speaker end with a description of the plums' taste?
To describe their unremarkable flavor

To reveal that he feels no guilt

To highlight his lack of enjoyment of them

To show the lingering memory it left behind
23 What is the title of Tony Hoagland's poem about space travel?
"Booster Rockets"

"Lift Off"

"Rocket Fuel"

"Jet"
24 In her poem "Moths," what does Jennifer O'Grady depict?
Moths fluttering around a back-porch lightbulb

A mother–daughter relationship

Moths emerging from cocoons

The speaker's fear of the dark
25 Which term best characterizes the style of the poem?
Baroque

Mysterious

Direct

Opaque

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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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