This Is Just To Say Quizzes

This Is Just To Say Quiz

1 What is the tone of the poem?
Cynical and sharp

Happy and upbeat

Dark and moody

Straightforward and regretful
2 Which of the following is a symbol in the poem?
The icebox

Oranges

The kitchen sink

Apples
3 What style was Williams seeking to imitate?
Bashō's haikus about autumn

Shakespeare's love sonnets

Gary Snyder's poems about the North Cascades mountain range

A note left on the kitchen counter by his wife
4 What is a major stylistic feature of the poem?
A prominent inclusion of dashes

Complex metaphors

Elaborate wordplay

The use of enjambment
5 How many stanzas does the poem have?
Three

Six

Eighteen

Four
6 What do plums represent in the poem?
Religious guilt

The speaker's love for his wife

Farm labor

Everyday pleasures
7 Which of the following lines contains alliteration?
"I have eaten"

"and which"

"you were probably"

"so sweet"
8 What is the genre of the poem?
Pastoral poetry

Erasure poetry

War epic

Imagist poetry
9 What is the poem's setting?
The speaker's kitchen

An orchard

The speaker's farm

A doctor's office
10 What is the poem's form and meter?
The poem is a villanelle.

The poem is a sonnet.

The poem is a haiku.

The poem is written in free verse.
11 What fruit does the speaker guiltily consume?
Plums

Pears

Peaches

Apples
12 What does the word "icebox" refer to?
It is a colloquial term for a meat locker.

It refers to an ice skating rink.

It refers to an ice chest.

It is an older term for refrigerator.
13 What is the poem's main conflict?
The speaker's guilt over eating plums

The speaker's struggle to not eat apples

The speaker's marital struggles

The speaker's inability to cook
14 When does the poem's climax occur?
In the second stanza

In the third stanza

Before the poem has begun

In the first stanza
15 What role does understatement play in the poem?
The speaker confesses his consumption of the plums like a crime

The speaker compares his consumption of the plums to a buglarly

The speaker describes the icebox like a vast arctic tundra

The speaker imagines his wife's anger like a tidal wave
16 What type of stanza does the poem have?
Octaves

Monostiches

Quintains

Quatrains
17 What is a recurring motif in the poem?
Frustration

Envy

Regret

Happiness
18 Which of the following is NOT a theme in the poem?
Guilt

Time

Communication

Taste
19 When was the poem published?
1988

1933

1938

1983
20 Which of the following poets also used enjambment prominently in their work?
All of the following

Billy Collins

Tony Hoagland

Jennifer O'Grady
21 Which of the following words does the speaker NOT use to describe the taste of the plums?
Cold

Saccharine

Sweet

Delicious
22 Why does the speaker end with a description of the plums' taste?
To highlight his lack of enjoyment of them

To show the lingering memory it left behind

To reveal that he feels no guilt

To describe their unremarkable flavor
23 What is the title of Tony Hoagland's poem about space travel?
"Jet"

"Rocket Fuel"

"Lift Off"

"Booster Rockets"
24 In her poem "Moths," what does Jennifer O'Grady depict?
Moths emerging from cocoons

The speaker's fear of the dark

A mother–daughter relationship

Moths fluttering around a back-porch lightbulb
25 Which term best characterizes the style of the poem?
Direct

Opaque

Baroque

Mysterious

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This Is Just To Say study guide contains a biography of William Carlos Williams, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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