To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?

1859

1936

1889

1912
2 Where was Housman born?

Worcestershire

Paris

Shropshire

London
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Oxford

Cambridge

University College, London

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

Unmotivated but brilliant

Dazzling

Consistently poor

Promising but disappointing
5 What did Housman do after graduating?

Immediately became a professor

Earned a Ph.D.

Married his wife

Worked as a clerk
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?

Determining which poems should be published

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Reconstructing classic texts

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

Most are about athletes

Most feature rural narrators

Most are autobiographical

Most employ a flowery style
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As a means of depicting beauty

As an expression of feeling

As a way of better understanding the classics

As an intellectual game
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?

Erotic

Frustrated

Melancholic

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

One and two

One and seven

Six and seven

Five and seven
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?

Housman himself

A close friend of the runner

A complete stranger

A member of the community
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?

Third person close

First person singular

First person plural

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

And set you at your threshold down

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And hold to the low lintel up

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
15 What does the speaker want?

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to hold onto life

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

Romantic

Modernist

Gothic

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

Minimalist

Extensive

Descriptive

Emotive
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 ephemerality of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The joy of fame

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

As a closing off from the world of the living

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

As a period of eternal punishment

As a continuation of life
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?

The Iliad

The Bible

The Odyssey

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?

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Masculinity is tragically short-lived

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 be false

It will be short-lived

It will only come when he is old

It will diminish his strength of character
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?

A deep sleep

An architectural space

A lost race

A shady place
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?

As a minor problem

As the runner's fault

As a kind of death

As a kind of freedom

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