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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) Conceit.
(b) Metonymy.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Imagery.

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

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

4. In the second quatrain of the second stanza, what becomes clear about the speaker's state of mind?
(a) He is actually asleep and only dreaming of 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 has not fully accepted the captain's death.

5. Which technique is evident in line 10, "Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills"?
(a) Antistrophe.
(b) Antimetabole.
(c) Anaphora.
(d) Antithesis.

Short Answer Questions

1. What feature of the Captain's face does line 17 focus on?

2. Which is the best interpretation of line 9, when the speaker urges "O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells"?

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

4. What does the phrase "swaying mass" refer to (line 12)?

5. What is the most common type of metrical foot in "O Captain! My Captain!"?

(see the answer key)

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