To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1912

1889

1936

1859
2 Where was Housman born?
London

Shropshire

Paris

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

University College, London

Oxford

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

Consistently poor

Unmotivated but brilliant

Promising but disappointing
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Immediately became a professor

Worked as a clerk

Earned a Ph.D.

Married his wife
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?
His political activism

His academic work

His poetry

His family
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Determining which poems should be published

Giving advice to writers

Reconstructing classic texts

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 are about athletes

Most are autobiographical

Most feature rural narrators
9 How did Housman see poetry?
As a way of better understanding the classics

As a means of depicting beauty

As an intellectual game

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

Erotic

Ironic

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

One and seven

Five and seven

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

Housman himself

A member of the community

A close friend of the runner
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?
Third person distant

Third person close

First person plural

First person singular
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

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

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

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to come back from the death

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

Romantic

Gothic

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

Minimalist

Descriptive

Extensive
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 eternal glory of fame

The ephemerality of fame

The joy of fame

The pointlessness of fame
20 How does "To an Athlete" describe death?
As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a continuation of life

As a period of eternal punishment

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?
Masculinity is tragically short-lived

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

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 diminish his strength of character

It will be short-lived

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

An architectural space

A shady place
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?
As a minor problem

As the runner's fault

As a kind of death

As a kind of freedom

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