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

2. What is a "keel" (line 4)?
(a) A measurement of the speed a ship is traveling.
(b) The central and largest sail on a three-masted ship.
(c) A part of a ship's steering mechanism, found at the back of the ship.
(d) A flat structure at the bottom of a ship, designed to add stability.

3. Which technique is evident in the phrase "for you the flag is flung" (line 10)?
(a) Sibilance.
(b) Assonance.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Cacophony.

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

5. 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)?
(a) Conceit.
(b) Refrain.
(c) Chorus.
(d) Verse.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What type of rhyme is employed in line 20, "From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won"?

(see the answer key)

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