The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quizzes

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Quiz

1 What does the word "surfeit" mean?
Excess

Charter or agreement

Large dinner party

Complaint
2 Which best characterizes this poem?
It follows an elaborate, complex formal structure

It makes heavy use of figurative language

It embraces moral ambiguity, leaving readers unsure who to root for

It focuses on the psyche of the speaker
3 Which best describes the poem's speaker?
An unidentified, omniscient third-person speaker

A dictator

A journalist bearing witness to the dictator's cruelty

An unidentified, limited first-person speaker
4 Where are the poem's first several lines set?
A coffee shop

A military hospital

A schoolbuilding

A sugarcane field
5 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABBACDDCABBACDDC

AABAABABA

It has no rhyme scheme

ABCBAADCD
6 What is the dictator's palace compared to?
A dog's mouth

A teapot

A watch face

A diamond ring
7 Who is the translator of the version discussed in this guide?
Mark Eisner

Pablo Neruda

W.S. Merwin

Ben Belitt
8 Neruda compares the palace-dwellers to "wineglasses, _____, and piping."
Chocolates

Drumbeats

Gemstones

Collars
9 What is the poem's meter?
It is free verse

Trochaic trimeter

Iambic pentameter

Anapestic hexameter
10 What does the word "finical" mean?
Erudite

Multifaceted

Picky

Shiny
11 Which of the following does the poem sharply critique?
Industrialization

Fascism and authoritarianism

Adult cruelty to children

Religious extremism
12 How many lines are in this poem?
14

10

15

17
13 Which of the following phrases does NOT contain alliteration?
"carrion, blood, and a nausea"

"the blinded, big leaves"

"The snout filled with silence and slime"

"the plant and its pollen"
14 Which of the following are juxtaposed?
The snout and the bones

The plant and the pollen

Laughter and death

The dictator and his allies
15 What does the word "satrap" mean?
An exclusive, government-sponsored club

A grand palace

A subordinate ruler or official

A type of trap used to catch mice and rats
16 Which type of sensory imagery is prominent in the poem's opening lines?
Taste imagery

Sound imagery

Tactile imagery

Smell imagery
17 What does the plant most likely symbolize?
God's abandonment

The power of the arts

Life under dictatorship

The refuge of nature
18 Which is NOT one of the poem's themes?
Death

Evil and oppression

Gender

Inequality
19 Which of the following is an instance of hyperbole?
"Lament was perpetual"

"their festering surfeit of bones"

"A finical satrap conversed"

"Vendetta was born"
20 Which of the following serve as a synecdochic representation in the poem?
A glove

A plant

A petal

A mouth
21 What does the word "carrion" mean?
A type of bird of prey

A brand of gun popular in fascist Spain

Decaying dead bodies

A battle cry
22 Neruda uses a simile to compare which of the following to a flower petal?
The smell of corpses

A military medal

A gunshot wound

A flag
23 In which era is this poem most likely set?
The 1970s

The mid-twentieth century

The late eighteenth century

The early Medieval period
24 How does Neruda depict authoritarians?
As zealous and obsessive

As frivolous and willfully blind

As sadistic and monstrous

As vulnerable and frightened
25 What does the word "bludgeon" mean?
Broken-down vehicle

Toolbox

Physical blow

Blunt person

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Dictators (Neruda Poem) is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

Study Guide for The Dictators (Neruda Poem)

The Dictators (Neruda Poem) study guide contains a biography of Pablo Neruda, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Read the Study Guide for The Dictators (Neruda Poem)…