Thomas Hardy: Poems Quizzes

Thomas Hardy: Poems Quiz "The Darkling Thrush"

1 Which of the following establishes the setting of "The Darkling Thrush"?
"Frost was spectre-grey"

"strings of broken lyres"

"household fires"

"a coppice gate"
2 Which of the following is NOT an example of antiquated diction?
"bine-stems"

"corpse outleant"

"Winter's dregs"

"coppice gate"
3 "Spectre-grey" foreshadows which of the following moments in the poem?
"little cause for carolings"

"The Century's corpse outleant"

"shrunken hard and dry"

"Some blessed Hope"
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 introduce a character named Frost

To suggest that Frost is malicious
5 Which of the following is an example of hyperbole?
"At once a voice arose among/ The bleak twigs"

"every spirit upon earth/ Seemed fervourless as I."

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

"So little cause for carolings/ Of such ecstatic sound"
6 Which of the following best expresses the tone of the speaker in "The Darkling Thrush"?
Joyous, optimistic

Pessimistic, despairing

Disappointed, unhinged

Cynical, indifferent
7 Which of the following best expresses the meaning of "outleant" in line 10?
On display

Revived

Escaped

Leaning out
8 Which of the following is NOT an example of alliteration?
"His crypt the cloudy canopy"

"In blast-beruffled plume"

"Winter's dregs made desolate"

"The Century's corpse outleant"
9 Which of the following has led critics to classify "The Darkling Thrush" as an early modernist work?
Hardy's use of a strict metric structure

The brevity of the poem

The presence of allusions

The hopeless attitude towards the new century
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 Milton, "Paradise Lost"

John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"
11 What is the significance of the metaphor to "strings of broken lyres"?
It suggests that classical poetry is no longer important

It suggests that poetry is also dying

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

It suggests that the speaker is distrustful of poetry
12 Which of the following best describes why Hardy may have written the thrush as "frail, gaunt, and small"?
The thrush ultimately fails to break through the gloom of the poem

The malicious natural world always betrays heavenly ideals

The thrush's song, and not its body, is what carries a possibility of hope

The speaker cannot perceive what the thrush really looks like
13 Which of the following is NOT an example of visual imagery?
"wind his death-lament"

"weakening eye of day"

"the cloudy canopy"

"The bleak twigs overhead"
14 What does "a full-hearted evensong" allude to?
Archetypal birdsong

Christian church

Greco-Roman music

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

Third-person limited

Third-person omniscient

First-person omniscient
16 What is the importance of Hardy's allusion to Keats in "The Darkling Thrush"?
"The Darkling Thrush" challenges Keats's Romantic depiction of nature in "Ode to a Nightingale"

"The Darkling Thrush" builds on on 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" challenges Keats's dismissal of the manmade world
17 Which of the following best approximates the meaning of the "pulse of germ and birth" in line 13?
The cycle of sickness and healing

The cycle of decay and rejuvenation

The cycle of potential and birth

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

"cause for carolings"

"dregs made desolate"

"such ecstatic sound"
19 What is being compared in lines 8-9?
The land and a funeral

The land and a resurrection

The land and a grave

The land and a corpse
20 Which line does "the bleak twigs overhead" refer back to most explicitly?
Line 3

Line 6

Line 5

Line 14
21 Which of the following is a unique thematic connection between line 6 and line 27?
Both are allusions to past poetic traditions

Both describe the desolation of the earth

Both refer back to the poetic process

Both suggest that no song could be enough to bring hope
22 In what year was "The Darkling Thrush" published?
1910

1902

1900

1899
23 Which of the following is NOT a significance of the word "darkling" in the title of the poem?
It suggests that the thrush is enveloped by the dark

It alludes to Keats

It alludes to Milton

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

Indifference

Yearning

Mourning
25 What is the significance of the numerous allusions in "The Darkling Thrush"?
Hardy is suggesting that poetry should not strive to be creative

Hardy is suggesting that the past is present in poetry as it is in the world

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

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

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