To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1936

1912

1859

1889
2 Where was Housman born?
London

Paris

Worcestershire

Shropshire
3 Where did Housman attend university?
Housman did not attend university

Oxford

University College, London

Cambridge
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?
Consistently poor

Unmotivated but brilliant

Promising but disappointing

Dazzling
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Immediately became a professor

Earned a Ph.D.

Married his wife

Worked as a clerk
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?
His poetry

His academic work

His political activism

His family
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Reconstructing classic texts

Giving advice to writers

Fact-checking things in newspapers

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

Most feature rural narrators

Most are about athletes

Most employ a flowery style
9 How did Housman see poetry?
As an expression of feeling

As a means of depicting beauty

As a way of better understanding the classics

As an intellectual game
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?
Melancholic

Ironic

Erotic

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

Five and seven

Six and seven

One and seven
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?
A complete stranger

A close friend of the runner

Housman himself

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

Third person close

First person singular

Third person distant
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?
The fleet foot on the sill of shade

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And hold to the low lintel up

And set you at your threshold down
15 What does the speaker want?
For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to embrace death
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?
Neoclassical

Gothic

Romantic

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

Minimalist

Descriptive

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

Stripped-down style

Focus on honor

Use of iambic meter
19 What does the laural symbolize?
The ephemerality of fame

The pointlessness of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The joy of fame
20 How does "To an Athlete" describe death?
As a closing off from the world of the living

As a period of eternal punishment

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a continuation of life
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?
The Aeneiad

The Odyssey

The Bible

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

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Masculinity is tragically short-lived

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny
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 only come when he is old

It will be false
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?
An architectural space

A lost race

A deep sleep

A shady place
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?
As the runner's fault

As a minor problem

As a kind of death

As a kind of freedom

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