The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

A soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself

An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.
2 What collection was this poem published in?
War Poems

The Old Huntsman

Does it Matter?

Counter-Attack and Other Poems
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 typed it up after the war

He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1916

1917

1918

1919
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
The Trauma of War

Dehumanization

Criticizing Military Authority

Hell
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
trench foot

fever dreams

shell shock

typhus
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
silent

prying

singing

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

Walking

Running

Groping
9 What does groping mean in this context?
feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

abuse someone

seeing

walking slowly
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the bad quality air

the dank dark tunnel

the heavy air

the unwholesome air.
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Domestic

Technological

Ancient

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

Verdun

The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead

Sleep and dreams

The soldier's wife
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1917

1918

1916

1920
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

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

He savagely kicks the figure

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He asks again louder
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above

Midday

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

Night
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
resilience and courage

sweat and horror

stink and grit

sweat and terror
19 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse

Blank verse
20 What is a rear guard?
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

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the front
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
Yes

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

No

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
Tripping, he grabbed the wall

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;

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

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
23 What is alliteration?
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

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

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
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Months earlier

In ancient times

Hours earlier

Ten days before
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
hell

isolation

memories

stress

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Study Guide for The Rear-Guard

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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