Evening Quizzes

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Evening Quiz

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

clear imagery

unusual euphony

latent sarcasm
2 When did H.D. publish her collection The Usual Star?
1950

1934

1926

1947
3 How many years after H.D.'s poems were first published was her first collection published?
10

3

7

2
4 To whom was she briefly engaged, but did not marry?
Robert Frost

William Carlos Williams

T.S. Eliot

Ezra Pound
5 Who did Richard Aldington have an affair with?
Gertrude Stein

Winifred Ellerman

Elizabeth Bishop

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

shadowed

wide-spread

petaled
7 Why does the light "pass" in "Evening"?
Because the speaker is reaching old age

Because the speaker is descending a mountain

Because the sun goes behind a cloud

Because the sun is setting
8 What happens to the petals of the hepaticas in "Evening"?
They fall away

They expand outward

They reach inward

They turn purple
9 What do "blue tips" refer to in "Evening"?
the cornel-buds

the peak of the mountain ridges

the tip of the hepatica petals

the roots of the hepaticas
10 What is the "bluer heart" in "Evening"?
The central river running through the two ridges

The heart of the blue ridge mountains

The center of the hepatica

The melancholy of the speaker
11 What might "and the flowers are lost" represent on a symbolic level in "Evening"?
oblivion, inwardness, loss of clarity, the unconscious

the sun cannot find the hepaticas that blend into the blue mountain

the flowers all blend together and individuality dissipates

the evening represents the winter soon to strip the mountain of flowers
12 What gives the reader a hint that "Evening" is a poem of transition?
Words like "passes," "grow," "toward," "reach," "bend," and "seeks"

The unusual commas and dashes sprinkled throughout

Flower poems are always about transition, because of the seasons

It is clear the speaker wants to change, and is thinking among the hepaticas she describes
13 What might be symbolized by the line "the petals reach inward," in the poem "Evening"?
The shrinking of flowers in the cold

The petals reaching for the pollen to nourish themselves

A shift of focus to internal life

The loneliness of the petals, which seek contact
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

There is an undertone of sadness

The lines evoke a vast expanse of ridges and flowers

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

Active voice

Second person

Passive voice
16 Why must the speaker note that the "cornel-buds are still white" in "Evening"?
Because the blue hepaticas create a bluish shadow

Because night is coming and their lightness will fade

Because cornel-buds change color in late summer

Because only young cornel-buds are white
17 What do the words "dart," "creeps," "cut," and "seeks" evoke symbolically in "Evening"?
The fading light creates a scene of occult shadow and mystery amidst a magnetic pull toward oblivion

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

Underneath all of the flowers there are many insects that demand recognition

Doom is impending, and even the leaves, grass, and flowers begin to lose hope
18 Given H.D.'s interest in psychoanalysis, what might "shadow" refer to in the second stanza of "Evening"?
What is hidden in the unconscious mind

The violence in our hearts

The destruction that sometimes occurs in nature

The Oedipus Complex
19 What is a visual and conceptual theme in the poem "Evening"?
The trauma of death for a family during the war

The cowardice of those who keep secrets

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

The minutiae of the individual amidst a shared expanse
20 What words are repeated most in the poem "Evening"?
Light, flower, hepatica, grow

Dart, seeks, bud, toward

Roots, leaf, lost, shadow

Black, petals, night, ridge
21 What could the increasing darkness and loss of light and visibility symbolize in the poem "Evening"?
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 depression one often feels when alone, especially in nature, realizing that we will all eventually fade away

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 blue of the darkening sky that makes flowers look blue

The sad wilt of the flower at night

The darker blue on the inside of a shadowy hepatica flower

The pull of fate in the natural world
23 What does the speaker mean by the phrase "cornel-root" in the poem "Evening"?
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

The root of the "cornel" flowers, most likely white flowers of the dogwood family
24 When was the poem "Evening" written?
1933

1944

1916

1917
25 How does the passive phrase "are lost" affect the last line of the poem "Evening"?
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

The phrase is accusatory, evoking an underlying bitterness

The phrase insinuates a kind of the naivety intrinsic to every living thing

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…