To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1936

1859

1889

1912
2 Where was Housman born?
Worcestershire

Paris

London

Shropshire
3 Where did Housman attend university?
University College, London

Housman did not attend university

Cambridge

Oxford
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?
Dazzling

Consistently poor

Promising but disappointing

Unmotivated but brilliant
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Immediately became a professor

Married his wife

Worked as a clerk

Earned a Ph.D.
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?
His family

His academic work

His poetry

His political activism
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Giving advice to writers

Reconstructing classic texts

Determining which poems should be published

Fact-checking things in newspapers
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 intellectual game

As a means of depicting beauty

As a way of better understanding the classics

As an expression of feeling
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?
Ironic

Melancholic

Erotic

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

Six and seven

One and two

One and seven
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?
A member of the community

A complete stranger

A close friend of the runner

Housman himself
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?
Third person close

First person plural

First person singular

Third person distant
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?
Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And hold to the low lintel up

And set you at your threshold down

The fleet foot on the sill of shade
15 What does the speaker want?
For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to hold onto life
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?
Neoclassical

Romantic

Gothic

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

Descriptive

Emotive

Minimalist
18 Which of the following is NOT a similarity between "To an Athlete" and ancient Roman poetry?
Use of iambic meter

Stripped-down style

Depiction of the afterlife

Focus on honor
19 What does the laural symbolize?
The joy of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The pointlessness of fame

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

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a continuation of life

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

The Bible

The Aeneiad

The Odyssey
22 Housman compares the runner to a girl in the last line. What does this most plausibly suggest, given the rest of the poem?
Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

Masculinity is inferior to femininity

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

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 only come when he is old

It will diminish his strength of character

It will be false

It will be short-lived
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?
A shady place

An architectural space

A lost race

A deep sleep
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?
As a kind of freedom

As the runner's fault

As a kind of death

As a minor problem

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