This Is Just To Say Quizzes

This Is Just To Say Quiz

1 What is the tone of the poem?

Cynical and sharp

Straightforward and regretful

Dark and moody

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?

Gary Snyder's poems about the North Cascades mountain range

Shakespeare's love sonnets

Bashō's haikus about autumn

A note left on the kitchen counter by his wife
4 What is a major stylistic feature of the poem?

A prominent inclusion of dashes

Elaborate wordplay

Complex metaphors

The use of enjambment
5 How many stanzas does the poem have?

Eighteen

Four

Three

Six
6 What do plums represent in the poem?

Farm labor

Everyday pleasures

Religious guilt

The speaker's love for his wife
7 Which of the following lines contains alliteration?

"you were probably"

"so sweet"

"I have eaten"

"and which"
8 What is the genre of the poem?

Erasure poetry

Imagist poetry

War epic

Pastoral poetry
9 What is the poem's setting?

The speaker's farm

An orchard

The speaker's kitchen

A doctor's office
10 What is the poem's form and meter?

The poem is a villanelle.

The poem is a haiku.

The poem is written in free verse.

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

Peaches

Pears

Apples

Plums
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 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 first stanza

In the second stanza

In the third stanza

Before the poem has begun
15 What role does understatement play in the poem?

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

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

Monostiches

Octaves

Quatrains

Quintains
17 What is a recurring motif in the poem?

Frustration

Happiness

Envy

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

Taste

Communication

Time

Guilt
19 When was the poem published?

1938

1988

1933

1983
20 Which of the following poets also used enjambment prominently in their work?

All of the following

Jennifer O'Grady

Tony Hoagland

Billy Collins
21 Which of the following words does the speaker NOT use to describe the taste of the plums?

Delicious

Cold

Sweet

Saccharine
22 Why does the speaker end with a description of the plums' taste?

To highlight his lack of enjoyment of them

To show the lingering memory it left behind

To describe their unremarkable flavor

To reveal that he feels no guilt
23 What is the title of Tony Hoagland's poem about space travel?

"Lift Off"

"Jet"

"Booster Rockets"

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

A mother–daughter relationship

The speaker's fear of the dark

Moths emerging from cocoons

Moths fluttering around a back-porch lightbulb
25 Which term best characterizes the style of the poem?

Opaque

Baroque

Direct

Mysterious

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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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