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What the Thunder Said Quiz: The Ultimate MCQ Challenge

Mukesh RishitBy Updated:9 Mins Read

Welcome to our comprehensive “What the Thunder Said quiz“, exploring the powerful final section of T.S. Eliot’s revolutionary poem, “The Waste Land.” This collection of 20 carefully crafted multiple-choice questions will test and expand your understanding of this climactic conclusion to Eliot’s modernist masterpiece.

“What the Thunder Said” represents the culmination of Eliot’s poetic journey through the spiritual wasteland of modern civilization. This section builds to an apocalyptic vision before offering a glimpse of potential renewal through ancient wisdom. Though complex, it contains some of the most striking imagery and profound insights in the entire poem.

This quiz is particularly valuable for:

  • Students preparing for literature examinations, including the RPSC First Grade English exam
  • Poetry enthusiasts seeking deeper insight into modernist techniques and themes
  • Researchers exploring the synthesis of Western and Eastern religious traditions
  • Anyone interested in Eliot’s commentary on post-WWI European civilization

Take our Death by Water Quiz Too

As you progress through these questions, you’ll encounter challenges that:

  • Analyze the apocalyptic imagery of destroyed cities and barren landscapes
  • Examine the significance of thunder’s message from Hindu sacred texts
  • Explore the symbolic importance of rain, renewal, and resurrection
  • Investigate Eliot’s use of fragmentation as both theme and technique
  • Consider how the poem’s conclusion offers both resignation and hope

Understanding “What the Thunder Said” is crucial for:

  • Grasping the complete structural and thematic arc of The Waste Land
  • Appreciating how Eliot synthesizes diverse cultural and religious traditions
  • Recognizing the poem’s profound influence on 20th-century literature
  • Comprehending Eliot’s vision of potential spiritual renewal amid modern desolation

Are you ready to test your knowledge of this monumental work and deepen your appreciation for Eliot’s poetic genius? Let’s begin our exploration of “What the Thunder Said” – where destruction and potential rebirth converge in one of literature’s most powerful conclusions!

Let’s take the What the Thunder Said Quiz

What the Thunder Said Quiz

What the Thunder Said Quiz

1. What symbols appear at the ruined chapel in “The Waste Land”?

In “What the Thunder Said,” the cock crows as a symbol of awakening and potential renewal, followed by rain that finally comes to the drought-stricken wasteland: “Then a damp gust / Bringing rain / Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves / Waited for rain, while the black clouds / Gathered far distant, over Himavant.”

2. Which cities are described as “unreal” in the final section?

In “What the Thunder Said,” Eliot writes: “Jerusalem Athens Alexandria / Vienna London / Unreal.” These cities represent major centers of Western and Middle Eastern civilization and culture that appear hollow or “unreal” in the modern wasteland.

3. From which religious text does Eliot draw the thunder’s speech in the final section?

Eliot draws on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, a Hindu sacred text, for the thunder’s pronouncement “DA” and its three interpretations: Datta (give), Dayadhvam (sympathize), and Damyata (control).

4. What are the three meanings of the thunder’s “DA” according to the Upanishads?

As Eliot notes in his own footnotes to the poem, the thunder’s “DA” is interpreted as “Datta” (give), “Dayadhvam” (sympathize), and “Damyata” (control) in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

5. Who is sitting by the shore fishing at the end of the poem?

The final section shows a Fisher King figure: “I sat upon the shore / Fishing, with the arid plain behind me / Shall I at least set my lands in order?” This alludes to the wounded king of the Grail legends whose illness is connected to his land’s infertility.

6. What phrase concludes “The Waste Land”?

The poem ends with the Sanskrit words “Shantih shantih shantih,” a traditional closing benediction used in Upanishads.

7. How does Eliot translate the final Sanskrit phrase in his notes?

In his notes to the poem, Eliot translates “Shantih shantih shantih” as equivalent to “The peace which passeth understanding,” borrowing language from the Christian Bible (Philippians 4:7).

8. Which literary technique is most prominent throughout “The Waste Land”?

The poem is famously constructed of fragments—different voices, languages, literary allusions, and scenes juxtaposed against each other, reflecting the fractured nature of modern civilization and consciousness.

9. What Biblical scene does Eliot allude to in “What the Thunder Said”?

This section contains allusions to the journey to Emmaus from Luke 24, where the resurrected Christ walks unrecognized with two disciples: “Who is the third who walks always beside you? / When I count, there are only you and I together / But when I look ahead up the white road / There is always another one walking beside you.”

10. What does the crowing of the cock traditionally symbolize?

In many traditions, including Christian symbolism, the cock’s crow announces dawn and awakening. In the poem, it signals potential renewal: “In this decayed hole among the mountains / In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing / Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel / There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home. / It has no windows, and the door swings, / Dry bones can harm no one. / Only a cock stood on the rooftree / Co co rico co co rico / In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust / Bringing rain.”

11. What classical myth does Eliot incorporate into the poem’s structure?

Eliot uses the Fisher King myth and the quest for the Holy Grail as an organizing myth for the poem. The Fisher King’s wounded state corresponds to the spiritual and cultural sterility of the modern waste land.

12. Which Tarot card does NOT appear in “The Waste Land”?

While the poem mentions several Tarot cards including the Hanged Man, the Wheel of Fortune, and Death (through Madame Sosostris’s fortune-telling), the Tower card does not appear in the poem.

13. What is the significance of April in the poem’s opening lines?

The poem opens with “April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.” Eliot inverts traditional spring imagery; rather than being welcome, April’s awakening is cruel because it forces the dead land and its inhabitants to confront life again.

14. What does the Fisher King plan to do at the poem’s end?

The poem concludes with the Fisher King figure asking, “Shall I at least set my lands in order?” This suggests a tentative move toward restoration and order amid the chaos.

15. What language are the final words of the poem written in?

“The Waste Land” ends with the Sanskrit benediction “Shantih shantih shantih,” drawn from Hindu Upanishads, suggesting Eliot’s incorporation of Eastern spiritual traditions as potential sources of renewal for Western civilization.

16. Which theme is NOT central to “The Waste Land”?

While Eliot addresses modern technology’s effects, the poem is far from celebratory about technological progress. Instead, it portrays modern technological civilization as spiritually empty and culturally fragmented.

17. What do the “fragments” mentioned near the poem’s end represent?

When the speaker says “These fragments I have shored against my ruins,” he refers to the cultural and literary fragments he has assembled throughout the poem—from Shakespeare to Dante to the Upanishads—as bulwarks against spiritual and cultural collapse.

18. What type of rebirth or renewal does the poem ultimately suggest?

The poem ends not with certainty but with possibility—the integration of Eastern wisdom (Sanskrit “Shantih”) with Western tradition, suggesting that renewal might come through cross-cultural spiritual resources rather than solely through Western traditions.

19. What does the speaker experience when considering “Dayadhvam” (sympathy)?

In the “Dayadhvam” section, Eliot writes about each being “prisons” unto ourselves: “We think of the key, each in his prison / Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison.” This represents the difficulty of genuine sympathy in a world of isolated individuals.

20. Which of these works did Eliot extensively reference in his notes to “The Waste Land”?

In his notes, Eliot acknowledged his debt to Jessie Weston’s anthropological study “From Ritual to Romance,” which examines the connections between vegetation rituals and the Grail legends—providing much of the mythic framework for “The Waste Land.”
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