Thomas Hardy: Poems Quizzes

Thomas Hardy: Poems Quiz "The Darkling Thrush"

1 Which of the following establishes the setting of "The Darkling Thrush"?
"household fires"

"strings of broken lyres"

"Frost was spectre-grey"

"a coppice gate"
2 Which of the following is NOT an example of antiquated diction?
"corpse outleant"

"coppice gate"

"bine-stems"

"Winter's dregs"
3 "Spectre-grey" foreshadows which of the following moments in the poem?
"Some blessed Hope"

"shrunken hard and dry"

"The Century's corpse outleant"

"little cause for carolings"
4 Which of the following best expresses why Hardy personifies Frost in the first stanza?
To imply that the speaker follows a pagan understanding of natural gods

To suggest that the natural world works actively upon the human world

To suggest that Frost is malicious

To introduce a character named Frost
5 Which of the following is an example of hyperbole?
"So little cause for carolings/ Of such ecstatic sound"

"all mankind that haunted nigh/ Had sought their household fires."

"At once a voice arose among/ The bleak twigs"

"every spirit upon earth/ Seemed fervourless as I."
6 Which of the following best expresses the tone of the speaker in "The Darkling Thrush"?
Pessimistic, despairing

Cynical, indifferent

Joyous, optimistic

Disappointed, unhinged
7 Which of the following best expresses the meaning of "outleant" in line 10?
Leaning out

On display

Revived

Escaped
8 Which of the following is NOT an example of alliteration?
"In blast-beruffled plume"

"Winter's dregs made desolate"

"The Century's corpse outleant"

"His crypt the cloudy canopy"
9 Which of the following has led critics to classify "The Darkling Thrush" as an early modernist work?
The presence of allusions

The brevity of the poem

The hopeless attitude towards the new century

Hardy's use of a strict metric structure
10 Which of the following is NOT one of the poems Hardy is alluding to?
Percy Shelley, "To a Skylark"

Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Windhover"

John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"

John Milton, "Paradise Lost"
11 What is the significance of the metaphor to "strings of broken lyres"?
It suggests that poetry is also dying

It suggests that the speaker is distrustful of poetry

It suggests that song is the only way to bring the world back to life

It suggests that classical poetry is no longer important
12 Which of the following best describes why Hardy may have written the thrush as "frail, gaunt, and small"?
The malicious natural world always betrays heavenly ideals

The thrush ultimately fails to break through the gloom of the poem

The speaker cannot perceive what the thrush really looks like

The thrush's song, and not its body, is what carries a possibility of hope
13 Which of the following is NOT an example of visual imagery?
"The bleak twigs overhead"

"wind his death-lament"

"weakening eye of day"

"the cloudy canopy"
14 What does "a full-hearted evensong" allude to?
Christian church

Archetypal birdsong

Popular music

Greco-Roman music
15 Which of the following best describes the speaker or narrator of "The Darkling Thrush"?
First-person limited

Third-person omniscient

First-person omniscient

Third-person limited
16 What is the importance of Hardy's allusion to Keats in "The Darkling Thrush"?
"The Darkling Thrush" challenges Keats's dismissal of the manmade world

"The Darkling Thrush" challenges Keats's Romantic depiction of nature in "Ode to a Nightingale"

"The Darkling Thrush" was widely regarded as plagiarism of Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale"

"The Darkling Thrush" builds on on Keats's Romantic depiction of nature in "Ode to a Nightingale"
17 Which of the following best approximates the meaning of the "pulse of germ and birth" in line 13?
The cycle of sadness and joy

The cycle of decay and rejuvenation

The cycle of sickness and healing

The cycle of potential and birth
18 Which of the following is an example of onomatopoeia?
"blast-beruffled"

"dregs made desolate"

"such ecstatic sound"

"cause for carolings"
19 What is being compared in lines 8-9?
The land and a corpse

The land and a resurrection

The land and a grave

The land and a funeral
20 Which line does "the bleak twigs overhead" refer back to most explicitly?
Line 6

Line 3

Line 14

Line 5
21 Which of the following is a unique thematic connection between line 6 and line 27?
Both describe the desolation of the earth

Both are allusions to past poetic traditions

Both suggest that no song could be enough to bring hope

Both refer back to the poetic process
22 In what year was "The Darkling Thrush" published?
1899

1910

1902

1900
23 Which of the following is NOT a significance of the word "darkling" in the title of the poem?
It alludes to Milton

It suggests that the thrush is dark in color

It alludes to Keats

It suggests that the thrush is enveloped by the dark
24 Which of the following best expresses the speaker's attitude towards rural places?
Frustration

Mourning

Yearning

Indifference
25 What is the significance of the numerous allusions in "The Darkling Thrush"?
Hardy is suggesting that the past is present in poetry as it is in the world

Hardy is suggesting that poetry should not strive to be creative

Hardy is suggesting that his work is superior to any past poetic interpretation of birdsong

Hardy is suggesting that the thrush's song isn't actually exciting

Justify the title of the poem, The Darkling Thrush.

In using the word "darkling" to describe the thrush, Keating is pulling out some antiquated English that illustrates the size of the bird, as well as its frailty and old age, which belies the beauty of its song.... a sense of hope in a cold, dark...

Asked by Ârùñ B #676635

Answered by jill d #170087 on 8/16/2017 2:42 PM