Neutral Tones Quizzes

Neutral Tones Quiz

1 Which of the following does NOT characterize Thomas Hardy's writing?
The optimistic view that God will save humanity

Country folkways

The difficulties of life

Disillusionment
2 What does "Wessex" refer to?
Hardy's town of origin

Hardy's fictional literary landscape

Current day South England

Ancient Southwestern England
3 When was Wessex Poems and Other Verses published?
1912

1879

1898

1900
4 Which writer has NOT named Hardy as an influence?
Philip Larkin

George Eliot

Robert Frost

W.H. Auden
5 What does the title "Neutral Tones" refer to?
The speaker's true sense of passivity

The neutral imagery and mood in the poem

The ex-lover's quiet and thoughtful nature

The speaker's preference for a muted palette
6 Which best characterizes the speaker?
The speaker suffered more than his partner as a result of the relationship.

After breaking up with his ex-partner, the speaker maintains a facade of passivity that does not quite manage to conceal his bitterness.

The speaker is finally able to heal from his past relationship and embark on a new one.

The speaker has read Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven."
7 What is true about the speaker's partner?
She refers to Thomas Hardy's first wife.

She has blue eyes.

She left a devastating impression on the speaker as a result of the break-up.

She suffered more than the speaker did.
8 Define "rove."
(verb) travel constantly without a fixed destination; wander

(noun) a secret place in a forest

(noun) a grouping of ash trees

(verb) attempt to plant in starving sod
9 What could be another word for "ominous"?
threatening

lucky

futuristic

auspicious
10 In which season is the poem set?
Unspecified

Winter

Spring

Summer
11 Which is NOT a theme in the poem?
Love, Loss, and Disillusionment

The Optimism of Love

The Persistence of Memories

The Facade of Neutrality
12 What does God do to the white sun in the first stanza?
conceals

casts

chides

curses
13 What does God do to the white sun in the fourth stanza?
celebrates

hides

curses

chides
14 What does the starving sod represent?
The speaker is starving as a result of the break-up.

The lower-class people of Wessex suffered more than the upper-class.

The ground of the speaker's relationship to his ex is sterile, as is the speaker's capacity for new love.

Humans don't know how to farm efficiently.
15 What does winter symbolize in the poem?
Death, hibernation, and endings

Slowness, tidiness, and introspection

Cookies, Santa, and celebration

Cycles, rest, and family
16 What is revealed in the first line?
The speaker's angry bitterness

The setting and the facade of neutrality

The ending of the relationship

The ex-lover's smile
17 Define "keen."
(noun) a heartfelt cry

(adjective) sharp and well-defined

(adjective) disengenuous

(adjective) neutral
18 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
The poem does not rhyme

ABCD

ABBA

AABB
19 What is the rhyme scheme reminiscent of?
The poetry of Alfred Tennyson

The final quatrain of Shakespearean sonnets

The first octave of Petrarchan sonnets

None
20 What does the speaker compare his ex-partner's bitter grin to?
A crow coming home to roost

A raven arriving at one's doorstep

A blackbird singing in a tree

An ominous bird taking flight
21 What is the speaker's final perspective on love?
Love is cruel but it pays off.

Love is incorrect, unjust, and immoral.

Love requires great sacrifice in order to receive its rewards.

Love is capable of harm, but one must choose to risk one's heart.
22 What is polysyndeton?
A literary device in which one word refers in part to another

The bleak despair that demonstrates the speaker's outlook

A kind of metaphor

The purposeful repetition of conjunctions in close succession for emphasis
23 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
The white sun

The yellow sun

Winter

The ex-partner's smile
24 Which is NOT a simile in the poem?
"And the sun was white, as though chidden of God"

"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove / Over tedious riddles of years ago"

"And a grin of bitterness swept thereby / Like an ominous bird a-wing"

"The change was like the knell"
25 Which best describes Hardy's religious views?
Devout atheist who refuses to discuss God

Spiritualistic

Evangelical Christian

Agnostic, but complexly so

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Neutral Tones study guide contains a biography of Thomas Hardy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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