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?

Does it Matter?

The Old Huntsman

War Poems

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?

1919

1918

1917

1916
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?

Hell

Criticizing Military Authority

Dehumanization

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

trench foot

typhus

shell shock

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

prying

silent

crying

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

Groping

Tripping

Walking

Running
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 dank dark tunnel

the bad quality air

the heavy air

the unwholesome air.
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?

No Man's Land

The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?

The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness

Sleep and dreams

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

1917

1920

1916

1918
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Angry, embittered, hungry
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He shouts in his face

He asks again louder

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

Night

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?

resilience and courage

sweat and horror

sweat and terror

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

Iambic pentameter

Free verse

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)
20 What is a rear guard?

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

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

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

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

Yes

No
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

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

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

Tripping, he grabbed the wall
23 What is alliteration?

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

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?

In ancient times

Ten days before

Hours earlier

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

hell

isolation

memories

stress

The Rear-Guard

by Siegfried Sassoon

The Rear-Guard Quiz

The Rear-Guard Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Rear-Guard