To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1889

1859

1912

1936
2 Where was Housman born?
Paris

Worcestershire

London

Shropshire
3 Where did Housman attend university?
Cambridge

University College, London

Housman did not attend university

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

Promising but disappointing

Dazzling

Unmotivated but brilliant
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Married his wife

Earned a Ph.D.

Immediately became a professor

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

His family

His political activism

His poetry
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Fact-checking things in newspapers

Determining which poems should be published

Reconstructing classic texts

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

Most employ a flowery style

Most feature rural narrators

Most are about athletes
9 How did Housman see poetry?
As a way of better understanding the classics

As an expression of feeling

As an intellectual game

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

Ironic

Frustrated

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

Five and seven

One and two

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

A close friend of the runner

Housman himself

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

Third person distant

First person plural

Third person close
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 hold onto life

For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to defend his title
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

Minimalist

Descriptive

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

Use of iambic meter

Focus on honor

Depiction of the afterlife
19 What does the laural symbolize?
The joy of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The ephemerality of fame

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

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

The Iliad

The Bible

The Aeneiad
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

Masculinity is inferior to femininity

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 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?
A deep sleep

A lost race

A shady place

An architectural space
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?
As a kind of freedom

As a kind of death

As the runner's fault

As a minor problem

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