Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

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

The optimistic view that God will save humanity

The difficulties of life

Country folkways
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Ancient Southwestern England

Current day South England

Hardy's town of origin

Hardy's fictional literary landscape
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1900

1898

1879

1912
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
Philip Larkin

W.H. Auden

George Eliot

Robert Frost
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.

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."

After breaking up with his ex-partner, the speaker maintains a facade of passivity that does not quite manage to conceal his bitterness.
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She suffered more than the speaker did.

She has blue eyes.

She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod

(noun) a grouping of ash trees
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
auspicious

futuristic

threatening

lucky
10 In which season is the poem set?
Summer

Unspecified

Winter

Spring
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
The Optimism of Love

The Persistence of Memories

Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Facade of Neutrality
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
chides

casts

curses

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 speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.

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.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Cycles, rest, and family

Death, hibernation, and endings

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The ex-lover's smile

The speaker's angry bitterness

The ending of the relationship

The setting and the facade of neutrality
17 Define "keen."
(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) sharp and well-defined

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

ABCD

ABBA

The poem does not rhyme
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

None
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
An ominous bird taking flight

A blackbird singing in a tree

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A crow coming home to roost
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love is cruel but it pays off.

Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.

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 purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

A kind of metaphor
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The ex-partner's smile

Winter

The white sun

The yellow sun
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"

"The change was like the knell"

"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"

"And the sun was white, as though chidden of God"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Agnostic, but complexly so

Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Spiritualistic

Evangelical Christian

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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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