The Rear-Guard Quizzes

The Rear-Guard Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in "The Rear-Guard"?
An unidentified speaker who follows the progress of a soldier in an underground tunnel.

A soldier

Definitely Sassoon himself

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

War Poems

Counter-Attack and Other Poems

Does it Matter?
3 What was the context for Sassoon writing "The Rear Guard"?
He wrote it by hand in a diary as he recovered from wounds sustained in battle

He typed it up after the war

He wrote it after the war

He wrote it by hand while fighting in the trenches
4 When was Counter-Attack and Other Poems published?
1918

1919

1916

1917
5 Which of the following is not a theme in the poem?
Hell

Criticizing Military Authority

The Trauma of War

Dehumanization
6 What condition which Sassoon himself experienced is suggested in the poem?
shell shock

trench foot

fever dreams

typhus
7 How is the soldier's torch described?
silent

singing

prying

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

Walking

Running

Tripping
9 What does groping mean in this context?
abuse someone

seeing

feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands

walking slowly
10 Finish this quote" "From side to side, and sniffed__"
the dank dark tunnel

the bad quality air

the heavy air

the unwholesome air.
11 What best characterizes the kinds of objects found down in the tunnel?
Domestic

Military

Technological

Ancient
12 What does Sassoon specify as the setting?
No Man's Land

The Hindenburg Line

The Winterberg Tunnel

Verdun
13 What is romanticized in the poem?
Sleep and dreams

The soldier's wife

The battle overhead

The surrounding darkness
14 In what year does Sassoon specify the poem taking place?
1920

1916

1917

1918
15 Which best characterizes the soldier's condition?
Sleep-deprived, desperate, isolated

Shell-shocked, hungry, sleepy

Sleep-deprived, wishful, fanciful

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 asks again louder

He shouts in his face
17 What time of day is it in the poem?
Night

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

Midday

Unspecified in the tunnel, but it is implied that it is dawn in the world above
18 What is in the soldier's hair?
sweat and terror

stink and grit

sweat and horror

resilience and courage
19 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter (sometimes interrupted)

Free verse
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 the last line of soldiers

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

a part of a military force that protects it from attack from the front
21 Does the poem take place during an active battle?
Yes

No

It is during war time, but there is no active battle in the tunnel

The poem takes place in a tunnel below an active battle
22 Which contains an example of alliteration?
The rosy gloom of battle overhead.

Tripping, he grabbed the wall

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

“Get up and guide me through this stinking place.”
23 What is alliteration?
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

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

symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts
24 When did the other soldier in the poem die?
Ten days before

Months earlier

In ancient times

Hours earlier
25 What does the soldier "unload" behind him at the end?
memories

isolation

hell

stress

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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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