The Rear-Guard Quizzes

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?

An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

A soldier

A dying soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself
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 while fighting in the trenches

He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle

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

1918

1919

1916

1917
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?

Dehumanization

Criticizing Military Authority

Hell

The Trauma of War
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?

shell shock

fever dreams

typhus

trench foot
7 How is the soldier's torch described?

singing

crying

prying

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

Tripping

Walking

Groping

Running
9 What does groping mean in this context?

seeing

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

walking slowly

abuse someone
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"

the unwholesome air.

the bad quality air

the heavy air

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

Ancient

Domestic

Technological

Military
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?

Verdun

No Man's Land

The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel
13 What is romanticized in the poem?

Sleep and dreams

The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead

The soldier's wife
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?

1917

1920

1918

1916
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?

He asks again louder

He shouts in his face

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He savagely kicks the figure
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

sweat and horror

resilience and courage

stink and grit
19 What is the poem's meter?

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter

Free verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)
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

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 during an offensive
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

Yes

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel

No
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 occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts

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

a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?

In ancient times

Ten days before

Months earlier

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

isolation

stress

memories

hell

The Rear-Guard

by Siegfried Sassoon

The Rear-Guard Quiz

The Rear-Guard Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Rear-Guard