The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
Definitely Sassoon himself

A soldier

A dying soldier

An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.
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 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?
1916

1917

1919

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

Dehumanization

Criticizing Military Authority

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

shell shock

trench foot

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

singing

crying

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

Groping

Walking

Tripping
9 What does groping mean in this context?
walking slowly

seeing

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

abuse someone
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?
Ancient

Domestic

Technological

Military
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

Sleep and dreams

The surrounding darkness

The soldier's wife
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1916

1920

1918

1917
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry

Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated
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?
Night

Midday

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

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
stink and grit

sweat and terror

resilience and courage

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

Free verse

Iambic pentameter

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 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 rear during an offensive
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
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

Yes
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

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

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Months earlier

Ten days before

Hours earlier

In ancient times
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
isolation

stress

hell

memories

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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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