The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

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

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

Definitely Sassoon himself

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 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 by hand while fighting in the trenches

He wrote it after the war
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1918

1919

1917

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

The Trauma of War

Criticizing Military Authority

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

fever dreams

typhus

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

singing

silent

prying
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

seeing

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

the bad quality air

the unwholesome air.

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

Ancient

Technological

Domestic
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
The Hindenburg Line

No Man's Land

Verdun

The Winterberg Tunnel
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The battle overhead

The soldier's wife

The surrounding darkness

Sleep and dreams
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1920

1916

1917

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

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He savagely kicks the figure

He asks again louder

He shouts in his face

He shakes the sleeper's arm
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is nighttime in the world above

Night

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

Midday
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
stink and grit

resilience and courage

sweat and terror

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

Free verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Blank 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 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
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle

No

Yes

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

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

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

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
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
In ancient times

Months earlier

Ten days before

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

stress

hell

isolation

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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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