To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1936

1859

1889

1912
2 Where was Housman born?
Shropshire

Paris

London

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

University College, London

Cambridge

Oxford
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?
Unmotivated but brilliant

Dazzling

Consistently poor

Promising but disappointing
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Married his wife

Worked as a clerk

Immediately became a professor

Earned a Ph.D.
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?
His family

His poetry

His academic work

His political activism
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Giving advice to writers

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Determining which poems should be published

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

Most are autobiographical

Most are about athletes

Most employ a flowery style
9 How did Housman see poetry?
As a way of better understanding the classics

As an intellectual game

As a means of depicting beauty

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

Frustrated

Erotic

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

Five and seven

One and two

Six and seven
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?
A close friend of the runner

Housman himself

A member of the community

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

First person singular

Third person close

Third person distant
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?
And set you at your threshold down

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And hold to the low lintel up
15 What does the speaker want?
For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to defend his title

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

Neoclassical

Modernist

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

Emotive

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

Use of iambic meter

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

The pointlessness of fame

The joy of fame

The ephemerality 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 closing off from the world of the living

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

The Aeneiad

The Odyssey

The Bible
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 be short-lived

It will diminish his strength of character

It will be false

It will only come when he is old
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?
A deep sleep

A shady place

An architectural space

A lost race
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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