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 soldier

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

Does it Matter?

The Old Huntsman

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 typed it up after the war

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?
1917

1919

1916

1918
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?
typhus

trench foot

shell shock

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

singing

crying

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

Running

Walking

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

walking slowly

abuse someone

seeing
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the dank dark tunnel

the bad quality air

the unwholesome air.

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

Domestic

Military

Ancient
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 battle overhead

The soldier's wife

Sleep and dreams

The surrounding darkness
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1920

1917

1916

1918
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Angry, embittered, hungry

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

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

Midday

Night

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

stink and grit

sweat and terror

resilience and courage
19 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Iambic pentameter

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

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”
23 What is alliteration?
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

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
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?
stress

isolation

memories

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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