To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?

1889

1936

1912

1859
2 Where was Housman born?

Paris

London

Shropshire

Worcestershire
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Housman did not attend university

University College, London

Oxford

Cambridge
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?

Promising but disappointing

Dazzling

Consistently poor

Unmotivated but brilliant
5 What did Housman do after graduating?

Worked as a clerk

Earned a Ph.D.

Immediately became a professor

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

His poetry

His academic work

His political activism

His family
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Giving advice to writers

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Determining which poems should be published

Reconstructing classic texts
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?

Most are autobiographical

Most employ a flowery style

Most are about athletes

Most feature rural narrators
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As a means of depicting beauty

As an intellectual game

As an expression of feeling

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?

Five and seven

Six and seven

One and seven

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

Housman himself

A member of the community

A close friend of the runner

A complete stranger
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?

Third person close

First person singular

Third person distant

First person plural
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And set you at your threshold down

And hold to the low lintel up

The fleet foot on the sill of shade
15 What does the speaker want?

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to hold onto life
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?

Neoclassical

Romantic

Modernist

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

Emotive

Extensive

Minimalist

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

Focus on honor

Stripped-down style

Depiction of the afterlife

Use of iambic meter
19 What does the laural symbolize?

The joy of fame

The pointlessness of fame

The ephemerality of fame

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

As a period of eternal punishment

As a continuation of life

As a closing off from the world of the living

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?

The Odyssey

The Bible

The Iliad

The Aeneiad
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 inferior to femininity

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Masculinity is tragically short-lived
23 What does Housman's return to the laurel in the final stanza suggest about the athlete's fame amongst the dead?

It will diminish his strength of character

It will be short-lived

It will be false

It will only come when he is old
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?

A shady place

A deep sleep

A lost race

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

As a kind of freedom

As a minor problem

As a kind of death

As the runner's fault

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