To an Athlete Dying Young Quizzes

To an Athlete Dying Young "To an Athlete Dying Young"

1 When was A. E. Housman born?
1912

1889

1936

1859
2 Where was Housman born?
Worcestershire

Shropshire

London

Paris
3 Where did Housman attend university?
University College, London

Cambridge

Oxford

Housman did not attend university
4 Which of the following best describes Housman's career as a student?
Consistently poor

Dazzling

Promising but disappointing

Unmotivated but brilliant
5 What did Housman do after graduating?
Immediately became a professor

Worked as a clerk

Married his wife

Earned a Ph.D.
6 What was Housman's priority during his life?
His poetry

His political activism

His family

His academic work
7 What kind of editing did Housman do?
Giving advice to writers

Determining which poems should be published

Fact-checking things in newspapers

Reconstructing classic texts
8 Which of the following is true of the poems in A Shropshire Lad?
Most feature rural narrators

Most are autobiographical

Most are about athletes

Most employ a flowery style
9 How did Housman see poetry?
As a means of depicting beauty

As an expression of feeling

As an intellectual game

As a way of better understanding the classics
10 What is the overarching tone of Housman's poetry?
Erotic

Frustrated

Ironic

Melancholic
11 Which two stanzas of "To an Athlete Dying Young" most closely parallel one another?
Five and seven

One and seven

One and two

Six and seven
12 Who is the speaker in "To an Athlete"?
A complete stranger

A member of the community

Housman himself

A close friend of the runner
13 What is the point of view of "To an Athlete"?
Third person close

Third person distant

First person singular

First person plural
14 Which of the following does not contain the motif of "boundaries"?
Smart lad, to slip betimes away

And hold to the low lintel up

And set you at your threshold down

The fleet foot on the sill of shade
15 What does the speaker want?
For the runner to defend his title

For the runner to hold onto life

For the runner to embrace death

For the runner to come back from the death
16 Which movement does Housman's subject matter most resemble?
Gothic

Romantic

Modernist

Neoclassical
17 Which of the following best describes Housman's diction in "To an Athlete"?
Descriptive

Minimalist

Emotive

Extensive
18 Which of the following is NOT a similarity between "To an Athlete" and ancient Roman poetry?
Depiction of the afterlife

Use of iambic meter

Focus on honor

Stripped-down style
19 What does the laural symbolize?
The pointlessness of fame

The eternal glory of fame

The ephemerality of fame

The joy of fame
20 How does "To an Athlete" describe death?
As a closing off from the world of the living

As a period of eternal punishment

As a continuation of life

As the time when one's good deeds are rewarded
21 Which text does Housman's depiction of the afterlife likely allude to?
The Aeneiad

The Iliad

The Odyssey

The Bible
22 Housman compares the runner to a girl in the last line. What does this most plausibly suggest, given the rest of the poem?
Death is desirable because it brings androgyny

Masculinity is inferior to femininity

Masculinity is tragically short-lived

The runner was in touch with his feminine side
23 What does Housman's return to the laurel in the final stanza suggest about the athlete's fame amongst the dead?
It will be short-lived

It will diminish his strength of character

It will only come when he is old

It will be false
24 To what does Housman most consistently compare death?
A shady place

A deep sleep

An architectural space

A lost race
25 How does Housman depict the loss of fame?
As the runner's fault

As a kind of death

As a minor problem

As a kind of freedom

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