Helen Quizzes

1 What important life event occurred for H.D. in 1933?

Beginning a love affair

Publishing her second collection

Beginning analysis with Freud

Traveling to Britain
2 Did H.D. believe in the process of psychoanalysis?

Yes

Only shortly before her death

Before her stillbirth but not afterward

No
3 What did Freud report that H.D. hoped to do?

Change her bisexuality

Erase trauma in Egypt

Become the greatest Imagist poet

Form a new religion
4 Why did H.D. begin analysis with Freud?

her hatred and fear of men

a lack of belief in her poetic abilities

past traumas and anxiety about impending war

religious paranoia and substance abuse
5 What work did H.D. write in 1956?

Poetic manifesto

Assessment of WWII

Tribute to Freud

Condemnation of monogamy
6 Who did H.D. marry in 1913?

Ezra Pound

William Carlos Williams

Richard Aldington

Scot Cecil Gray
7 H.D.'s husband was

Swiss

German

American

British
8 What was the name of H.D.'s daughter?

Perdita

Helena

Heliodora

Saffie
9 What was the pen name of H.D.'s female lover?

Cecil

Schaffner

W.E.

Bryher
10 What year did H.D. formally divorce Aldington?

1938

1928

1948

1919
11 Who has the white face in "Helen"?

Troy

Odysseus

Helen

Paris
12 Why does the face in "Helen" have "still eyes" and "lustre as of olives"?

She is Trojan

She represents Greek prosperity

She is dead

She is a statue or symbol
13 What is the effect of H.D. writing "All Greece hates"?

It makes the lines that follow appear hyper-literal

It creates a tone that in its melodrama becomes flippant and dismissive

It reveals H.D.'s contempt for the Greek people

It suggests that the hatred is rooted deep in the Greek psyche through mythology
14 Which stanzas of "Helen" have rhyming couplets embedded in them?

All three

None

One

Only two
15 What rhetorical and poetic device does H.D. use in the first lines of each stanza of "Helen"?

Anaphora

Synechdoche

Simile

Onomatopoeia
16 What cultural experience is H.D. alluding to in the second stanza of "Helen" when she writes "hating it deeper still / when it grows wan and white / remembering past enchantments / and past ills"?

Misogyny and bitterness

Nationalism and patriotism

Racism and bigotry

Numbness and socipathy
17 According to H.D., why might Greece "revile" Helen's face both when smiling and when somber in the poem "Helen"?

Because she has become a scapegoat for their bitterness

Because they hate war

Because they feel such show of emotion is unseemly

Because they don't appreciate Helen's fragility
18 Why is Helen referred to as "God's daughter" in "Helen"?

Because Helen was known for being pious and spiritual

Because all royal women were considered the daughters of God in Greece

Because in Greek mythology, she was the daughter of Zeus

Because the speaker is emphasizing that hate transcends religion
19 Why is the word "unmoved" significant in "Helen"?

Because they are losing their faith in their religion and feel nothing

Because they refuse to budge regarding their position in the Trojan War

Because Helen is a statue in the poem, and is therefore sedentary

Because Greece, a symbol of the patriarchy, mindlessly dehumanizes and fetishizes Helen
20 What is the significance of Greece only loving Helen if she were "white ash" in "Helen"?

Greece feels Helen is a traitor and wants her dead

Greece feels strongly that Helen did not experience a proper burial, leaving them feeling frustrated and angry

Greece hopes to frighten potential enemies by showing they will burn their own icons if necessary

Women are resented and blamed so extensively, that only once they're obliterated do the attacks subside
21 What might the inclusion of the phrases "cool feet" and "slenderest knees" illustrate?

The sneaky qualities of her character

Her unique yet all-encompassing beauty

The fact that she is a disintegrating statue

Signs that she was a bad omen for Greece
22 What might Greece function as a symbol of in the poem "Helen"?

Selfish children

The dangers of not forgiving

Misogynistic culture

The violence of war
23 In Greek mythology, what was Helen known for?

Her child-like merriment and wonder

Her hope for Greek dominance

Her hatred and rejection of men

Her beauty and her connection to the start of the Trojan War
24 In Greek mythology, who was Paris of Troy?

A Greek hero

A maid who competed with Helen for the love of Greece

The king who took Helen from the king of Sparta

A storyteller and poet
25 What famous work tells the story of the Trojan War?

The Iliad

The Harvest Feast

Antigone

Oedipus Rex

Helen

by H. D.

Helen Quiz

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