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

Happy and upbeat

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

The icebox

Apples

Oranges

The kitchen sink
3 What style was Williams seeking to imitate?

Bashō's haikus about autumn

Shakespeare's love sonnets

Gary Snyder's poems about the North Cascades mountain range

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

The use of enjambment

Elaborate wordplay

Complex metaphors
5 How many stanzas does the poem have?

Three

Four

Six

Eighteen
6 What do plums represent in the poem?

Religious guilt

Everyday pleasures

Farm labor

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

"and which"

"I have eaten"

"so sweet"

"you were probably"
8 What is the genre of the poem?

Imagist poetry

Pastoral poetry

War epic

Erasure poetry
9 What is the poem's setting?

An orchard

The speaker's farm

The speaker's kitchen

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

The poem is written in free verse.

The poem is a villanelle.

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 chest.

It is an older term for refrigerator.

It refers to an ice skating rink.

It is a colloquial term for a meat locker.
13 What is the poem's main conflict?

The speaker's guilt over eating plums

The speaker's marital struggles

The speaker's struggle to not eat apples

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

Before the poem has begun

In the third stanza

In the first stanza

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

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

The speaker compares his consumption of the plums to a buglarly

The speaker describes the icebox like a vast arctic tundra

The speaker confesses his consumption of the plums like a crime
16 What type of stanza does the poem have?

Quatrains

Quintains

Monostiches

Octaves
17 What is a recurring motif in the poem?

Regret

Happiness

Frustration

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

Taste

Guilt

Time

Communication
19 When was the poem published?

1983

1988

1938

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

Jennifer O'Grady

Tony Hoagland

All of the following

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

Saccharine

Delicious

Sweet

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

To reveal that he feels no guilt

To describe their unremarkable flavor

To show the lingering memory it left behind

To highlight his lack of enjoyment of them
23 What is the title of Tony Hoagland's poem about space travel?

"Rocket Fuel"

"Jet"

"Lift Off"

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

Moths emerging from cocoons

A mother–daughter relationship

Moths fluttering around a back-porch lightbulb

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

Direct

Opaque

Mysterious

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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