To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

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

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1859

1912

1889

1936
2 Where was Housman born?
Paris

London

Worcestershire

Shropshire
3 Where did Housman attend university?
Oxford

University College, London

Cambridge

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

Promising but disappointing

Unmotivated but brilliant

Consistently poor
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Married his wife

Immediately became a professor

Earned a Ph.D.

Worked as a clerk
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?
His family

His political activism

His poetry

His academic work
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Reconstructing classic texts

Determining which poems should be published

Giving advice to writers

Fact-checking things in newspapers
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?
Most employ a flowery style

Most feature rural narrators

Most are about athletes

Most are autobiographical
9 How did Housman see poetry?
As a way of better understanding the classics

As a means of depicting beauty

As an expression of feeling

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

Ironic

Melancholic

Erotic
11 Which two stanzas of "To an Athlete Dying Young" most closely parallel one another?
One and seven

Five and seven

Six and seven

One and two
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?
A close friend of the runner

A member of the community

A complete stranger

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

Third person distant

First person plural

Third person close
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?
The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And hold to the low lintel up

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And set you at your threshold down
15 What does the speaker want?
For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to come back from the death

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to defend his title
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?
Modernist

Romantic

Gothic

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

Minimalist

Emotive

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

Stripped-down style

Focus on honor

Use of iambic meter
19 What does the laural symbolize?
The eternal glory of fame

The joy of fame

The pointlessness of fame

The ephemerality 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 continuation of life

As a period of eternal punishment
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?
The Iliad

The Aeneiad

The Odyssey

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

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

The runner was in touch with his feminine side

Masculinity is inferior to femininity
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 only come when he is old

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

A deep sleep

A lost race

A shady place
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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