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?

Shropshire

Paris

London

Worcestershire
3 Where did Housman attend university?

Cambridge

Housman did not attend university

Oxford

University College, London
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?

Consistently poor

Promising but disappointing

Unmotivated but brilliant

Dazzling
5 What did Housman do after graduating?

Immediately became a professor

Worked as a clerk

Earned a Ph.D.

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

His family

His political activism

His academic work

His poetry
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Determining which poems should be published

Reconstructing classic texts

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

Most employ a flowery style

Most are about athletes

Most are autobiographical

Most feature rural narrators
9 How did Housman see poetry?

As an intellectual game

As a way of better understanding the classics

As an expression of feeling

As a means of depicting beauty
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

Six and seven

One and seven

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

A close friend of the runner

A complete stranger

Housman himself

A member of the community
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

The fleet foot on the sill of shade

And hold to the low lintel up

And set you at your threshold down
15 What does the speaker want?

For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to come back from the death

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

Neoclassical

Gothic

Modernist

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

Extensive

Descriptive

Emotive

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

Stripped-down style

Focus on honor

Use of iambic meter

Depiction of the afterlife
19 What does the laural symbolize?

The ephemerality of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The pointlessness of fame

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

As a closing off from the world of the living

As a period of eternal punishment

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded

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

The Aeneiad

The Odyssey

The Bible

The Iliad
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

Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

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 be short-lived

It will only come when he is old

It will be false

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

An architectural space

A shady place

A deep sleep

A lost race
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?

As a kind of death

As a minor problem

As the runner's fault

As a kind of freedom

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