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?

Shropshire

Paris

Worcestershire

London
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Oxford

Housman did not attend university

University College, London

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

Dazzling

Unmotivated but brilliant

Promising but disappointing

Consistently poor
5 What did Housman do after graduating?

Immediately became a professor

Married his wife

Earned a Ph.D.

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

His family

His academic work

His poetry

His political activism
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Reconstructing classic texts

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Giving advice to writers

Determining which poems should be published
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?

Most employ a flowery style

Most are autobiographical

Most feature rural narrators

Most are about athletes
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As an intellectual game

As an expression of feeling

As a means of depicting beauty

As a way of better understanding the classics
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?

Ironic

Frustrated

Melancholic

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

Five and seven

One and two

Six and seven

One 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"?

Third person close

First person plural

First person singular

Third person distant
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?

And set you at your threshold down

And hold to the low lintel up

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

The fleet foot on the sill of shade
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?

Neoclassical

Modernist

Gothic

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

Descriptive

Emotive

Minimalist

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

Focus on honor

Use of iambic meter

Depiction of the afterlife

Stripped-down style
19 What does the laural symbolize?

The ephemerality of fame

The pointlessness of fame

The joy of fame

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

As a closing off from the world of the living

As a continuation of life

As a period of eternal punishment

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?

The Bible

The Odyssey

The Iliad

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 inferior to femininity

Masculinity is tragically short-lived

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

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 a minor problem

As the runner's fault

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