Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

1 Which of the following does NOT characterize Thomas Hardy's writing?
The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Country folkways

Disillusionment

The difficulties of life
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Hardy's town of origin

Ancient Southwestern England

Current day South England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1879

1898

1912

1900
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
Philip Larkin

Robert Frost

W.H. Auden

George Eliot
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The speaker's true sense of passivity
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
The speaker suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.

The speaker has read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven."

The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.

After breaking up with his ex-partner, the speaker maintains a facade of passivity that does not quite manage to conceal his bitterness.
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She suffered more than the speaker did.

She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.

She has blue eyes.
8 Define "rove."
(noun) a secret place in a forest

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a grouping of ash trees
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
lucky

futuristic

auspicious

threatening
10 In which season is the poem set?
Summer

Unspecified

Spring

Winter
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Persistence of Memories

The Facade of Neutrality

The Optimism of Love
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
chides

curses

casts

conceals
13 What does God do to the white sun in the fourth stanza?
hides

curses

chides

celebrates
14 What does the starving sod represent?
Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.

The ground of the speaker's relationship to his ex is sterile, as is the speaker's capacity for new love.

The lower-class people of Wessex suffered more than the upper-class.

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Cycles, rest, and family

Death, hibernation, and endings

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ending of the relationship

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The ex-lover's smile

The speaker's angry bitterness
17 Define "keen."
(adjective) neutral

(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) sharp and well-defined
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
The poem does not rhyme

AABB

ABCD

ABBA
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

None

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
An ominous bird taking flight

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A crow coming home to roost

A blackbird singing in a tree
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

Love is cruel but it pays off.

Love is capable of harm, but one must choose to risk one's heart.

Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.
22 What is polysyndeton?
The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

A kind of metaphor

A literary device in which one word refers in part to another
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The yellow sun

Winter

The white sun

The ex-partner's smile
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"The change was like the knell"

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"

"And the sun was white, as though chidden of God"

"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Agnostic, but complexly so

Spiritualistic

Evangelical Christian

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Neutral Tones study guide contains a biography of Thomas Hardy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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