This Is Just To Say Quizzes

This Is Just To Say Quiz

1 What is the tone of the poem?
Dark and moody

Straightforward and regretful

Cynical and sharp

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

Oranges

The kitchen sink

Apples
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

Complex metaphors

The use of enjambment

Elaborate wordplay
5 How many stanzas does the poem have?
Six

Eighteen

Four

Three
6 What do plums represent in the poem?
Everyday pleasures

The speaker's love for his wife

Farm labor

Religious guilt
7 Which of the following lines contains alliteration?
"I have eaten"

"you were probably"

"so sweet"

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

Pastoral poetry

War epic

Erasure poetry
9 What is the poem's setting?
The speaker's kitchen

The speaker's farm

A doctor's office

An orchard
10 What is the poem's form and meter?
The poem is written in free verse.

The poem is a sonnet.

The poem is a haiku.

The poem is a villanelle.
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 skating rink.

It is an older term for refrigerator.

It refers to an ice chest.
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 second stanza

In the first stanza

In the third stanza

Before the poem has begun
15 What role does understatement play in the poem?
The speaker confesses his consumption of the plums like a crime

The speaker describes the icebox like a vast arctic tundra

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

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

Monostiches

Quintains

Octaves
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

Taste

Guilt

Time
19 When was the poem published?
1983

1933

1938

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

Jennifer O'Grady

Billy Collins

Tony Hoagland
21 Which of the following words does the speaker NOT use to describe the taste of the plums?
Delicious

Cold

Saccharine

Sweet
22 Why does the speaker end with a description of the plums' taste?
To highlight his lack of enjoyment of them

To describe their unremarkable flavor

To reveal that he feels no guilt

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

"Booster Rockets"

"Rocket Fuel"

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

Moths emerging from cocoons

The speaker's fear of the dark

A mother–daughter relationship
25 Which term best characterizes the style of the poem?
Baroque

Mysterious

Opaque

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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