This Is Just To Say Quizzes

This Is Just To Say Quiz

By John Melendez · Edited by James Cooper · Last reviewed April 17, 2022

1 What is the tone of the poem?

Dark and moody

Straightforward and regretful

Happy and upbeat

Cynical and sharp
2 Which of the following is a symbol in the poem?

Oranges

The kitchen sink

The icebox

Apples
3 What style was Williams seeking to imitate?

A note left on the kitchen counter by his wife

Gary Snyder's poems about the North Cascades mountain range

Shakespeare's love sonnets

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

Elaborate wordplay

Complex metaphors

The use of enjambment

A prominent inclusion of dashes
5 How many stanzas does the poem have?

Four

Six

Eighteen

Three
6 What do plums represent in the poem?

Farm labor

The speaker's love for his wife

Religious guilt

Everyday pleasures
7 Which of the following lines contains alliteration?

"and which"

"so sweet"

"you were probably"

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

Pastoral poetry

Imagist poetry

War epic

Erasure poetry
9 What is the poem's setting?

The speaker's kitchen

An orchard

A doctor's office

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

The poem is a villanelle.

The poem is written in free verse.

The poem is a sonnet.

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

Peaches

Apples

Pears

Plums
12 What does the word "icebox" refer to?

It refers to an ice skating rink.

It refers to an ice chest.

It is a colloquial term for a meat locker.

It is an older term for refrigerator.
13 What is the poem's main conflict?

The speaker's struggle to not eat apples

The speaker's marital struggles

The speaker's inability to cook

The speaker's guilt over eating plums
14 When does the poem's climax occur?

In the second stanza

In the third stanza

Before the poem has begun

In the first stanza
15 What role does understatement play in the poem?

The speaker describes the icebox like a vast arctic tundra

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

The speaker confesses his consumption of the plums like a crime

The speaker compares his consumption of the plums to a buglarly
16 What type of stanza does the poem have?

Monostiches

Octaves

Quintains

Quatrains
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?

Communication

Guilt

Taste

Time
19 When was the poem published?

1983

1933

1988

1938
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?

Sweet

Saccharine

Delicious

Cold
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 describe their unremarkable flavor

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

"Rocket Fuel"

"Lift Off"

"Booster Rockets"

"Jet"
24 In her poem "Moths," what does Jennifer O'Grady depict?

A mother–daughter relationship

Moths fluttering around a back-porch lightbulb

Moths emerging from cocoons

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

Opaque

Mysterious

Direct

Baroque

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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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