Quiz

TO AUTUMN.

John Keats

1. 1. Which of the following best describes the overall structure of 'To Autumn'?

   Three stanzas, each presenting a different aspect of autumn in sequence: abundance, personified repose, and autumn's own musicTwo stanzas contrasting autumn's bounty with spring's songs, followed by a concluding coupletFour stanzas moving from dawn to dusk across a single autumn dayThree stanzas organized as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis of the season's qualities

2. 2. In the first stanza, autumn is described as 'Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun.' What does this image primarily convey?

   Autumn and the sun collaborate intimately to bring crops and fruit to fullnessThe sun fears the coming of winter and seeks comfort from autumnAutumn is subordinate to the sun and merely reflects its warmthThe sun is personified as a father figure who nourishes autumn's children

3. 3. In stanza two, autumn is personified as a human figure. Which of the following is NOT one of the positions or activities attributed to that figure?

   Dancing at the edge of a harvested field at twilightSitting careless on a granary floorDrowsing asleep on a half-reap'd furrowWatching the last oozings of a cyder-press

4. 4. The image of bees who 'think warm days will never cease' at the end of stanza one is best interpreted as an example of which technique?

   Dramatic irony, since the reader knows summer is already over even as the bees are deceived into complacencyApostrophe, since the speaker addresses the bees directly to warn them of winterPathetic fallacy, since the bees' warmth reflects the speaker's own emotional stateSynecdoche, since the bees stand for all the creatures of the natural world

5. 5. What is the primary purpose of the rhetorical question 'Where are the songs of Spring?' at the opening of stanza three?

   To raise and then dismiss any sense of spring's superiority, affirming that autumn has its own musicTo express the speaker's grief that spring has permanently endedTo contrast spring's joyful birdsong with autumn's silence and emptinessTo signal a shift in speaker from the poet to the personified autumn figure

6. 6. The tone of 'To Autumn' is best described as which of the following?

   Sensuously meditative and accepting, finding beauty in ripeness and transienceElegiac and despairing, mourning the inevitable death of the natural worldCelebratory and triumphant, rejoicing in nature's conquest over timeIronic and detached, observing autumn from a clinical distance

7. 7. Which literary device is most prominently at work in lines such as 'the small gnats mourn' and 'full-grown lambs loud bleat'?

   Personification and auditory imagery working together to give voice to autumn's soundscapeSimile comparing the gnats' movement to human mourning ritualsAlliteration used to mimic the buzzing sounds of insects in the fieldOnomatopoeia in which animal names themselves echo their natural calls

8. 8. The 'winnowing wind' that soft-lifts autumn's hair in stanza two is an allusion to or draws upon which agricultural practice?

   The tossing of harvested grain into the air so wind separates the grain from the chaffThe scattering of seed across plowed fields before the first frostThe drying of cut hay by spreading it in the wind before balingThe fanning of smoke from bonfires used to clear stubble from fields

9. 9. What does the image of 'barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day' in stanza three primarily suggest about the time of day and mood?

   It is late afternoon moving toward dusk, and the striped clouds give the dying light a fleeting, flower-like beautyIt is early morning, and the clouds signal an approaching storm that will end the harvestIt is noon, and the clouds create shadows that make the stubble-plains look mournfulIt is midnight, and the barred clouds obscure the moon, deepening autumn's mystery

10. 10. Which statement best captures the central theme Keats develops across all three stanzas of 'To Autumn'?

    Transience and completion coexist: a season — and by extension any phase of life — can be fully beautiful even as it draws toward its closeNature's cycles are indifferent to human emotion, and the poet must learn to observe without feelingAutumn is superior to all other seasons because it alone combines labor, rest, and musicThe natural world constantly mourns its own passing, and only art can preserve what time destroys
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