The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
A soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself

An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

A dying soldier
2 What collection was this poem published in?
The Old Huntsman

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Does it Matter?

War Poems
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?
He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches

He typed it up after the war

He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1916

1919

1917

1918
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Criticizing Military Authority

Hell

Dehumanization

The Trauma of War
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
fever dreams

typhus

shell shock

trench foot
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
crying

silent

prying

singing
8 Fill in this quote: "__ along the tunnel, step by step"
Groping

Running

Tripping

Walking
9 What does groping mean in this context?
walking slowly

seeing

abuse someone

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the dank dark tunnel

the unwholesome air.

the heavy air

the bad quality air
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Ancient

Domestic

Technological

Military
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
The Winterberg Tunnel

The Hindenburg Line

No Man's Land

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
The soldier's wife

Sleep and dreams

The surrounding darkness

The battle overhead
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1920

1917

1918

1916
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Angry, embittered, hungry
16 How does the soldier respond when the sleeping figure doesn't answer him?
He savagely kicks the figure

He shakes the sleeper's arm

He shouts in his face

He asks again louder
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is nighttime in the world above

Night

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above

Midday
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
stink and grit

resilience and courage

sweat and terror

sweat and horror
19 What is the poem's meter?
Blank verse

Free verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Iambic pentameter
20 What is a rear guard?
a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear during an offensive

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the front

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the rear

a part of a military force that protects the last line of soldiers
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel

No

Yes

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
Tripping, he grabbed the wall

Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes and too vague to know;

“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”

The rosy gloom of battle overhead.
23 What is alliteration?
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated

the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Hours earlier

In ancient times

Months earlier

Ten days before
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
stress

hell

isolation

memories

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Study Guide for The Rear-Guard

The Rear-Guard study guide contains a biography of Siegfried Sassoon, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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