Evening Quizzes

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Evening Quiz

1 What are H.D.'s early poems known for? Their...
strong hyperbole

latent sarcasm

unusual euphony

clear imagery
2 When did H.D. publish her collection The Usual Star?
1934

1947

1950

1926
3 How many years after H.D.'s poems were first published was her first collection published?
10

2

3

7
4 To whom was she briefly engaged, but did not marry?
Ezra Pound

Robert Frost

T.S. Eliot

William Carlos Williams
5 Who did Richard Aldington have an affair with?
Gertrude Stein

Elizabeth Bishop

Winifred Ellerman

Dorothy York
6 How does H.D. first describe the hepaticas in "Evening"?
blue

petaled

shadowed

wide-spread
7 Why does the light "pass" in "Evening"?
Because the sun goes behind a cloud

Because the sun is setting

Because the speaker is reaching old age

Because the speaker is descending a mountain
8 What happens to the petals of the hepaticas in "Evening"?
They turn purple

They expand outward

They reach inward

They fall away
9 What do "blue tips" refer to in "Evening"?
the peak of the mountain ridges

the roots of the hepaticas

the cornel-buds

the tip of the hepatica petals
10 What is the "bluer heart" in "Evening"?
The heart of the blue ridge mountains

The melancholy of the speaker

The central river running through the two ridges

The center of the hepatica
11 What might "and the flowers are lost" represent on a symbolic level in "Evening"?
the evening represents the winter soon to strip the mountain of flowers

oblivion, inwardness, loss of clarity, the unconscious

the flowers all blend together and individuality dissipates

the sun cannot find the hepaticas that blend into the blue mountain
12 What gives the reader a hint that "Evening" is a poem of transition?
The unusual commas and dashes sprinkled throughout

It is clear the speaker wants to change, and is thinking among the hepaticas she describes

Flower poems are always about transition, because of the seasons

Words like "passes," "grow," "toward," "reach," "bend," and "seeks"
13 What might be symbolized by the line "the petals reach inward," in the poem "Evening"?
The loneliness of the petals, which seek contact

The shrinking of flowers in the cold

The petals reaching for the pollen to nourish themselves

A shift of focus to internal life
14 What is the immediate effect of the lines "from ridge to ridge, / from flower to flower—" in "Evening"?
The reader observes that the speaker must be walking

The lines evoke a vast expanse of ridges and flowers

There is an undertone of sadness

The repetition imitates the repetition in nursery rhymes
15 What kind of voice does the phrase "are lost" exemplify in "Evening"?
Omnipotent narrator

Passive voice

Active voice

Second person
16 Why must the speaker note that the "cornel-buds are still white" in "Evening"?
Because night is coming and their lightness will fade

Because only young cornel-buds are white

Because the blue hepaticas create a bluish shadow

Because cornel-buds change color in late summer
17 What do the words "dart," "creeps," "cut," and "seeks" evoke symbolically in "Evening"?
Doom is impending, and even the leaves, grass, and flowers begin to lose hope

Although at the surface there are sharp movements, the natural world is at peace in its cycles

The fading light creates a scene of occult shadow and mystery amidst a magnetic pull toward oblivion

Underneath all of the flowers there are many insects that demand recognition
18 Given H.D.'s interest in psychoanalysis, what might "shadow" refer to in the second stanza of "Evening"?
The Oedipus Complex

The violence in our hearts

What is hidden in the unconscious mind

The destruction that sometimes occurs in nature
19 What is a visual and conceptual theme in the poem "Evening"?
The minutiae of the individual amidst a shared expanse

The way gender affects one's view of everything, even light and color

The trauma of death for a family during the war

The cowardice of those who keep secrets
20 What words are repeated most in the poem "Evening"?
Black, petals, night, ridge

Light, flower, hepatica, grow

Dart, seeks, bud, toward

Roots, leaf, lost, shadow
21 What could the increasing darkness and loss of light and visibility symbolize in the poem "Evening"?
The depression one often feels when alone, especially in nature, realizing that we will all eventually fade away

The mystery of the natural world, and how the more we seek to understand it, the more it will elude us

The fact that the world is becoming dimmer over time, and humanity is losing its ability to remain enlightened

The loss of clarity or understanding in the mind when a memory fades or the mind represses thoughts and feelings
22 What, on a literal level, does the speaker refer to with the phrase "bluer heart" in the poem "Evening"?
The darker blue on the inside of a shadowy hepatica flower

The blue of the darkening sky that makes flowers look blue

The sad wilt of the flower at night

The pull of fate in the natural world
23 What does the speaker mean by the phrase "cornel-root" in the poem "Evening"?
The root of the "cornel" flowers, most likely white flowers of the dogwood family

The corner of the flower petals

The root of the hepaticas, which are actually white at their core

Vine-like white roots below the soil that emerge at night for air
24 When was the poem "Evening" written?
1916

1933

1944

1917
25 How does the passive phrase "are lost" affect the last line of the poem "Evening"?
The phrase insinuates a kind of the naivety intrinsic to every living thing

The phrase is accusatory, evoking an underlying bitterness

The phrase suggests a process is occurring that is somehow inevitable, and acts upon us

The phrase shows how even good poets like H.D. can be sloppy with their grammar

Evening Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Evening is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Evening

Evening study guide contains a biography of H. D., literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Read the Study Guide for Evening…