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

Disillusionment

Country folkways

The difficulties of life
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Current day South England

Ancient Southwestern England

Hardy's town of origin

Hardy's fictional literary landscape
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1900

1879

1912

1898
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
W.H. Auden

Robert Frost

Philip Larkin

George Eliot
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The speaker's preference for a muted palette

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

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

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

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 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.

She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
futuristic

threatening

auspicious

lucky
10 In which season is the poem set?
Unspecified

Spring

Summer

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

The Persistence of Memories

The Optimism of Love

The Facade of Neutrality
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
curses

casts

conceals

chides
13 What does God do to the white sun in the fourth stanza?
celebrates

chides

hides

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

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

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

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Cycles, rest, and family

Death, hibernation, and endings
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ex-lover's smile

The ending of the relationship

The speaker's angry bitterness

The setting and the facade of neutrality
17 Define "keen."
(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) neutral
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AABB

ABCD

ABBA

The poem does not rhyme
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

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 crow coming home to roost

A blackbird singing in a tree

A raven arriving at one's doorstep
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
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.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.
22 What is polysyndeton?
A literary device in which one word refers in part to another

A kind of metaphor

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The white sun

The ex-partner's smile

Winter

The yellow sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"

"The change was like the knell"

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

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Evangelical Christian

Spiritualistic

Agnostic, but complexly so

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Study Guide for Neutral Tones

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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