To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1859

1912

1889

1936
2 Where was Housman born?
Paris

Worcestershire

Shropshire

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?
Dazzling

Promising but disappointing

Unmotivated but brilliant

Consistently poor
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Earned a Ph.D.

Married his wife

Immediately became a professor

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

His political activism

His poetry

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

Determining which poems should be published

Giving advice to writers

Fact-checking things in newspapers
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?
Most are autobiographical

Most employ a flowery style

Most are about athletes

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 expression of feeling

As an intellectual game
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?
Melancholic

Frustrated

Ironic

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

One and two

One and seven

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

A close friend of the runner

A member of the community

Housman himself
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?
First person singular

First person plural

Third person distant

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

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And hold to the low lintel up

And set you at your threshold down
15 What does the speaker want?
For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to come back from the death

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

Modernist

Gothic

Romantic
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?
Focus on honor

Use of iambic meter

Stripped-down style

Depiction of the afterlife
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 a continuation of life

As a closing off from the world of the living

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

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

The Iliad

The Odyssey

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?
Masculinity is tragically short-lived

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

Masculinity is inferior to femininity

The runner was in touch with his feminine side
23 What does Housman's return to the laurel in the final stanza suggest about the athlete's fame amongst the dead?
It will be false

It will be short-lived

It will only come when he is old

It will diminish his strength of character
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 minor problem

As a kind of freedom

As the runner's fault

As a kind of death

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