Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

1 Which of the following does NOT characterize Thomas Hardy's writing?
Country folkways

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Disillusionment

The difficulties of life
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Current day South England

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Hardy's town of origin

Ancient Southwestern England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1898

1912

1879

1900
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
Robert Frost

Philip Larkin

W.H. Auden

George Eliot
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's true sense of passivity

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The speaker's preference for a muted palette
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
The speaker suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.

After breaking up with his ex-partner, the speaker maintains a facade of passivity that does not quite manage to conceal his bitterness.

The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.

The speaker has read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven."
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.

She suffered more than the speaker did.

She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She has blue eyes.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(noun) a secret place in a forest
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
threatening

auspicious

lucky

futuristic
10 In which season is the poem set?
Unspecified

Spring

Winter

Summer
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Facade of Neutrality

The Persistence of Memories

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Optimism of Love
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
curses

chides

casts

conceals
13 What does God do to the white sun in the fourth stanza?
chides

celebrates

curses

hides
14 What does the starving sod represent?
The lower-class people of Wessex suffered more than the upper-class.

The ground of the speaker's relationship to his ex is sterile, as is the speaker's capacity for new love.

Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.

The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Death, hibernation, and endings

Cycles, rest, and family

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ending of the relationship

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The ex-lover's smile

The speaker's angry bitterness
17 Define "keen."
(adjective) neutral

(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AABB

The poem does not rhyme

ABBA

ABCD
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

None

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A crow coming home to roost

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A blackbird singing in a tree

An ominous bird taking flight
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.

Love is cruel but it pays off.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

Love is capable of harm, but one must choose to risk one's heart.
22 What is polysyndeton?
A literary device in which one word refers in part to another

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

A kind of metaphor
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The white sun

Winter

The ex-partner's smile

The yellow sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"

"And the sun was white, as though chidden of God"

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"

"The change was like the knell"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Spiritualistic

Agnostic, but complexly so

Evangelical Christian

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

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Study Guide for Neutral Tones

Neutral Tones study guide contains a biography of Thomas Hardy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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