To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?

1889

1936

1859

1912
2 Where was Housman born?

Shropshire

Paris

Worcestershire

London
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Oxford

Housman did not attend university

Cambridge

University College, London
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?

Promising but disappointing

Dazzling

Unmotivated but brilliant

Consistently poor
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 family

His poetry

His academic work
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Giving advice to writers

Determining which poems should be published

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Reconstructing classic texts
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?

Most are about athletes

Most are autobiographical

Most feature rural narrators

Most employ a flowery style
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As a means of depicting beauty

As an intellectual game

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?

One and seven

Five and seven

Six and seven

One and two
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?

A complete stranger

A member of the community

Housman himself

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

First person singular

First person plural

Third person close

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 defend his title

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to embrace death

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

Modernist

Gothic

Neoclassical

Romantic
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?

Focus on honor

Stripped-down style

Use of iambic meter

Depiction of the afterlife
19 What does the laural symbolize?

The eternal glory of fame

The joy of fame

The ephemerality of fame

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

As a continuation of life

As a period of eternal punishment

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

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

The Iliad

The Aeneiad

The Bible

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

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

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 diminish his strength of character

It will only come when he is old

It will be short-lived

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

An architectural space

A deep sleep

A lost race

A shady place
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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