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.

Definitely Sassoon himself

A soldier

A dying soldier
2 What collection was this poem published in?

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Does it Matter?

The Old Huntsman

War Poems
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?

He typed it up after the war

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
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?

1919

1916

1917

1918
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?

Hell

The Trauma of War

Dehumanization

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

typhus

trench foot

fever dreams

shell shock
7 How is the soldier's torch described?

crying

singing

prying

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

Walking

Groping

Running

Tripping
9 What does groping mean in this context?

walking slowly

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

abuse someone

seeing
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"

the bad quality air

the dank dark tunnel

the unwholesome air.

the heavy air
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?

Technological

Ancient

Domestic

Military
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?

No Man's Land

Verdun

The Winterberg Tunnel

The Hindenburg Line
13 What is romanticized in the poem?

The surrounding darkness

Sleep and dreams

The soldier's wife

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

1917

1916

1920

1918
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy
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

Midday

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
18 What is in the soldier's hair?

sweat and horror

sweat and terror

resilience and courage

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

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse
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?

Yes

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

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

No
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;
23 What is alliteration?

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

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
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?

Months earlier

In ancient times

Ten days before

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

stress

isolation

hell

memories

The Rear-Guard

by Siegfried Sassoon

The Rear-Guard Quiz

The Rear-Guard Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Rear-Guard