The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

Definitely Sassoon himself

A dying soldier

A soldier
2 What collection was this poem published in?
War Poems

Does it Matter?

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

The Old Huntsman
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?
He wrote it by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle

He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

He typed it up after the war
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1916

1918

1917

1919
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Dehumanization

Hell

The Trauma of War

Criticizing Military Authority
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
typhus

trench foot

shell shock

fever dreams
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
singing

silent

crying

prying
8 Fill in this quote: "__ along the tunnel, step by step"
Tripping

Walking

Groping

Running
9 What does groping mean in this context?
walking slowly

seeing

abuse someone

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the heavy air

the bad quality air

the unwholesome air.

the dank dark tunnel
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Technological

Military

Ancient

Domestic
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
No Man's Land

The Hindenburg Line

Verdun

The Winterberg Tunnel
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The soldier's wife

The surrounding darkness

Sleep and dreams

The battle overhead
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1918

1917

1920

1916
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Angry, embittered, hungry

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He savagely kicks the figure

He asks again louder

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He shouts in his face
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Night

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is nighttime in the world above

Midday
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
sweat and terror

stink and grit

sweat and horror

resilience and courage
19 What is the poem's meter?
Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse

Iambic pentameter
20 What is a rear guard?
a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the front

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear during an offensive

a part of a military force that protects the last line of soldiers

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

Yes

No

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;
23 What is alliteration?
the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts

a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Hours earlier

Ten days before

In ancient times

Months earlier
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
isolation

memories

stress

hell

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The Rear-Guard study guide contains a biography of Siegfried Sassoon, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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