What Were They Like? Quizzes

What Were They Like? Quiz

1 Who is the "They" in "What Were They Like?"

American soldiers

The farmers of Laos

The people of Vietnam

Any victim of war
2 What is described as "stone" in the poem?

Walls

Lanterns

Ornaments

Paths
3 The poem was written about which historical event?

The Vietnam War

The Holocaust

The Korean War

World War II
4 Which tense does the poem mostly use?

Past perfect tense

Present tense

Past tense

Future tense
5 The Vietnamese people described in the poem are

Farmers

Regular people

Peasants

All of the above
6 Bone, ivory, jade, and silver are given as examples of

Frivolity

Ornaments

Jewelry

Luxury
7 What is compared to a "mirror" in the poem

Lanterns

Rice paddies

Jade mirrors

The horrors of war
8 In the poem, do the Vietnamese have an epic poem?

No one knows

They had an epic poem about the arrival of spring

They had an epic poem about war

They had a religious epic
9 "Moths in moonlight" describe

Vietnamese war planes

Vietnamese proverbs

Vietnamese songs

Vietnamese insects
10 Who is called "sir" in the poem?

The Vietnamese old man

The questioner

The American soldier

The respondent
11 What is NOT one of the main meaning of "buds" in the poem?

Reproduction

Children

Agriculture

Spring
12 Which is NOT an example of uncertainty in the poem?

"Perhaps"

"It is silent now"

"A dream ago"

"It is not remembered"
13 Which is Denise Levertov's other famous anti-war poem?

"Wichita Vortex Sutra"

"If We Must Die"

"First Encounter"

"Life at War"
14 With which school of poetry is Denise Levertov NOT associated?

New York School

New American Poetry

Black Mountain

Modernism
15 The poem's setting is

a bomb shelter

a Vietnamese village

unnamed

an American base
16 The tone of the second stanza can be described as

Formal

Enthusiastic

Impassionate

Elegaic
17 Which is NOT a major theme in the poem?

The common humanity of all people

The cost of war

The importance of protecting cultures

The viciousness of American soldiers
18 Hearts turned to stone is an example of a

Metonymy

Allegory

Metaphor

Motif
19 Finish the line: "Ornament is for ..."

Times of celebration

Rich people

Peace

Joy
20 The questioner wants to know whether the Vietnamese distinguished between speech and

Epic poetry

Screams

Whispers

Singing
21 Were the Vietnamese "inclined to quiet laughter?"

They preferred to sing

They were very serious

The laughed loudly and joyfully

Perhaps before the war
22 "Moths in moonlight" is an example of

Alliteration

Rhyme

Metaphor

Motif
23 The Vietnam War lasted from 1955 to

1967

1982

1968

1975
24 Who was another major poet who wrote poems against the war in Vietnam?

George Sassoon

Allen Ginsberg

Jack Kerouac

Anne Carson
25 Levertov referred to her poetic form as

Epic verse

Free verse

Projective verse

Organic verse

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What Were They Like? study guide contains a biography of Denise Levertov, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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