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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. Who is the speaker of the poem?
(a) A doctor.
(b) A soldier.
(c) A sailor.
(d) A writer.

2. Who is the author of "O Captain! my Captain!"?
(a) Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(b) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
(c) William Cullen Bryant.
(d) Walt Whitman.

3. Which details in the second stanza evoke a patriotic occasion?
(a) The flag and bugle.
(b) The captain and the bells.
(c) The bouquets and wreaths.
(d) The crowd and the shore.

4. What does it mean that the people are "exulting"?
(a) They are cheering excitedly.
(b) They are quietly watchful.
(c) They are crying out in grief.
(d) They are drinking and celebrating.

5. In the second quatrain of the second stanza, what becomes clear about the speaker's state of mind?
(a) He has not fully accepted the captain's death.
(b) He is afraid that he is in some way responsible for the captain's death.
(c) He hopes to hide the captain's death from the crowd.
(d) He is actually asleep and only dreaming of the captain's death.

Short Answer Questions

1. Line 4, "While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring," contains examples of which techniques?

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

3. Which technique is evident in the phrase "for you the flag is flung" (line 10)?

4. What is a "keel" (line 4)?

5. By which other term, besides "Captain," does the speaker address the captain of the ship?

(see the answer key)

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