To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

To an Athlete Dying Young "To an Athlete Dying Young"

1 When was A. E. Housman born?

1859

1889

1936

1912
2 Where was Housman born?

Shropshire

London

Paris

Worcestershire
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Oxford

University College, London

Cambridge

Housman did not attend university
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?

Unmotivated but brilliant

Consistently poor

Promising but disappointing

Dazzling
5 What did Housman do after graduating?

Earned a Ph.D.

Married his wife

Worked as a clerk

Immediately became a professor
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?

His political activism

His family

His academic work

His poetry
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Reconstructing classic texts

Giving advice to writers

Determining which poems should be published
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?

Most employ a flowery style

Most feature rural narrators

Most are autobiographical

Most are about athletes
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As an expression of feeling

As an intellectual game

As a way of better understanding the classics

As a means of depicting beauty
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?

Erotic

Frustrated

Melancholic

Ironic
11 Which two stanzas of "To an Athlete Dying Young" most closely parallel one another?

One and two

One and seven

Six and seven

Five and seven
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?

Housman himself

A close friend of the runner

A complete stranger

A member of the community
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?

First person singular

First person plural

Third person distant

Third person close
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And set you at your threshold down

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And hold to the low lintel up
15 What does the speaker want?

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to defend his title
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?

Gothic

Romantic

Neoclassical

Modernist
17 Which of the following best describes Housman's diction in "To an Athlete"?

Minimalist

Emotive

Extensive

Descriptive
18 Which of the following is NOT a similarity between "To an Athlete" and ancient Roman poetry?

Stripped-down style

Focus on honor

Depiction of the afterlife

Use of iambic meter
19 What does the laural symbolize?

The pointlessness of fame

The joy of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The ephemerality of fame
20 How does "To an Athlete" describe death?

As a continuation of life

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a closing off from the world of the living

As a period of eternal punishment
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?

The Iliad

The Aeneiad

The Odyssey

The Bible
22 Housman compares the runner to a girl in the last line. What does this most plausibly suggest, given the rest of the poem?

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

Masculinity is inferior to femininity

Masculinity is tragically short-lived
23 What does Housman's return to the laurel in the final stanza suggest about the athlete's fame amongst the dead?

It will be short-lived

It will diminish his strength of character

It will be false

It will only come when he is old
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?

A lost race

A deep sleep

A shady place

An architectural space
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?

As a kind of death

As a kind of freedom

As a minor problem

As the runner's fault

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