The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?

Large dinner party

Charter or agreement

Excess

Complaint
2 Which best characterizes this poem?

It makes heavy use of figurative language

It focuses on the psyche of the speaker

It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It embraces moral ambiguity, leaving readers unsure who to root for
3 Which best describes the poem's speaker?

An unidentified, limited first-person speaker

A dictator

A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty

An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker
4 Where are the poem's first several lines set?

A sugarcane field

A coffee shop

A military hospital

A schoolbuilding
5 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABCBAADCD

ABBACDDCABBACDDC

AABAABABA

It has no rhyme scheme
6 What is the dictator's palace compared to?

A dog's mouth

A watch face

A diamond ring

A teapot
7 Who is the translator of the version discussed in this guide?

Pablo Neruda

W.S. Merwin

Mark Eisner

Ben Belitt
8 Neruda compares the palace-dwellers to "wineglasses, _____, and piping."

Gemstones

Drumbeats

Chocolates

Collars
9 What is the poem's meter?

Anapestic hexameter

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

It is free verse
10 What does the word "finical" mean?

Picky

Erudite

Multifaceted

Shiny
11 Which of the following does the poem sharply critique?

Industrialization

Religious extremism

Adult cruelty to children

Fascism and authoritarianism
12 How many lines are in this poem?

15

14

17

10
13 Which of the following phrases does NOT contain alliteration?

"the blinded, big leaves"

"carrion, blood, and a nausea"

"The snout filled with silence and slime"

"the plant and its pollen"
14 Which of the following are juxtaposed?

The dictator and his allies

The plant and the pollen

Laughter and death

The snout and the bones
15 What does the word "satrap" mean?

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats

A subordinate ruler or official

An exclusive, government-sponsored club

A grand palace
16 Which type of sensory imagery is prominent in the poem's opening lines?

Taste imagery

Smell imagery

Tactile imagery

Sound imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?

The refuge of nature

The power of the arts

God's abandonment

Life under dictatorship
18 Which is NOT one of the poem's themes?

Inequality

Death

Gender

Evil and oppression
19 Which of the following is an instance of hyperbole?

"Vendetta was born"

"Lament was perpetual"

"their festering surfeit of bones"

"A finical satrap conversed"
20 Which of the following serve as a synecdochic representation in the poem?

A plant

A petal

A glove

A mouth
21 What does the word "carrion" mean?

Decaying dead bodies

A battle cry

A brand of gun popular in fascist Spain

A type of bird of prey
22 Neruda uses a simile to compare which of the following to a flower petal?

A flag

The smell of corpses

A gunshot wound

A military medal
23 In which era is this poem most likely set?

The late eighteenth century

The 1970s

The mid-twentieth century

The early Medieval period
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?

As zealous and obsessive

As frivolous and willfully blind

As sadistic and monstrous

As vulnerable and frightened
25 What does the word "bludgeon" mean?

Broken-down vehicle

Physical blow

Blunt person

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