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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "O Captain! My Captain!" lines 1-24.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Line 6, "O the bleeding drops of red," is an example of which technique?
(a) Metonymy.
(b) Oxymoron.
(c) Conceit.
(d) Imagery.

2. The list of ways the crowd is celebrating the arrival of the ship in lines 9-12 is an example of which technique?
(a) Understatement.
(b) Paraprosdokian.
(c) Accumulation.
(d) Periphrasis.

3. In context, the word "fearful" in line 1 indicates that the trip was which of the following?
(a) The cause of the captain's death.
(b) A bad idea from the beginning.
(c) A metaphor for an internal struggle.
(d) Full of frightening obstacles.

4. What does the phrase "swaying mass" refer to (line 12)?
(a) The ship.
(b) The captain.
(c) The crowd.
(d) The flag.

5. Where is the ship in the beginning of the poem?
(a) Just leaving the port.
(b) Just coming into port.
(c) Docked in the port.
(d) On the open sea.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does it mean that the people are "exulting"?

2. In the second quatrain of the second stanza, what becomes clear about the speaker's state of mind?

3. Which term describes the poem's repeated use of the phrases "O Captain! My Captain!" (lines 1 and 9) and "fallen cold and dead" (lines 8, 16, and 24)?

4. Which technique is evident in line 10, "Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills"?

5. What is the most accurate way to describe the poem's stanza form?

(see the answer key)

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