To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

By Claire Adler · Edited by James Cooper · Last reviewed October 20, 2022

1 When was A. E. Housman born?

1889

1912

1936

1859
2 Where was Housman born?

Paris

Shropshire

Worcestershire

London
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Oxford

Cambridge

University College, London

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

Consistently poor

Dazzling

Unmotivated but brilliant

Promising but disappointing
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 political activism

His poetry
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Reconstructing classic texts

Determining which poems should be published

Giving advice to writers
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?

Most feature rural narrators

Most employ a flowery style

Most are about athletes

Most are autobiographical
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As an expression of feeling

As a way of better understanding the classics

As an intellectual game

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

Frustrated

Ironic

Melancholic

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

Five and seven

One and seven

One and two

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

A close friend of the runner

Housman himself

A member of the community

A complete stranger
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?

First person plural

Third person distant

Third person close

First person singular
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?

And set you at your threshold down

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

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 defend his title

For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to hold onto life

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

Romantic

Neoclassical

Gothic

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

Extensive

Descriptive

Minimalist

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

Use of iambic meter

Stripped-down style

Focus on honor

Depiction of the afterlife
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 the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a period of eternal punishment

As a continuation of life

As a closing off from the world of the living
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?

The Odyssey

The Bible

The Aeneiad

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?

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Masculinity is tragically short-lived

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

Masculinity is inferior to femininity
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 deep sleep

A lost race
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?

As a kind of freedom

As the runner's fault

As a minor problem

As a kind of death

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