To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

To an Athlete Dying Young "To an Athlete Dying Young"

1 When was A. E. Housman born?

1859

1889

1936

1912
2 Where was Housman born?

Shropshire

London

Paris

Worcestershire
3 Where did Housman attend university?

University College, London

Oxford

Cambridge

Housman did not attend university
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?

Consistently poor

Dazzling

Unmotivated but brilliant

Promising but disappointing
5 What did Housman do after graduating?

Worked as a clerk

Immediately became a professor

Earned a Ph.D.

Married his wife
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?

His family

His academic work

His poetry

His political activism
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Reconstructing classic texts

Determining which poems should be published

Giving advice to writers
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?

Most feature rural narrators

Most are autobiographical

Most employ a flowery style

Most are about athletes
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As an intellectual game

As an expression of feeling

As a means of depicting beauty

As a way of better understanding the classics
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?

Erotic

Melancholic

Ironic

Frustrated
11 Which two stanzas of "To an Athlete Dying Young" most closely parallel one another?

Six and seven

Five and seven

One and seven

One and two
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?

A member of the community

A complete stranger

A close friend of the runner

Housman himself
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?

First person plural

Third person close

First person singular

Third person distant
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And set you at your threshold down

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And hold to the low lintel up
15 What does the speaker want?

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to come back from the death
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?

Modernist

Gothic

Romantic

Neoclassical
17 Which of the following best describes Housman's diction in "To an Athlete"?

Descriptive

Minimalist

Extensive

Emotive
18 Which of the following is NOT a similarity between "To an Athlete" and ancient Roman poetry?

Depiction of the afterlife

Focus on honor

Stripped-down style

Use of iambic meter
19 What does the laural symbolize?

The pointlessness of fame

The ephemerality of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The joy of fame
20 How does "To an Athlete" describe death?

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a continuation of life

As a period of eternal punishment

As a closing off from the world of the living
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?

The Aeneiad

The Odyssey

The Iliad

The Bible
22 Housman compares the runner to a girl in the last line. What does this most plausibly suggest, given the rest of the poem?

Masculinity is tragically short-lived

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Masculinity is inferior to femininity

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny
23 What does Housman's return to the laurel in the final stanza suggest about the athlete's fame amongst the dead?

It will only come when he is old

It will be short-lived

It will diminish his strength of character

It will be false
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?

A shady place

A lost race

A deep sleep

An architectural space
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?

As a kind of freedom

As the runner's fault

As a kind of death

As a minor problem

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