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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 soldier.
(b) A doctor.
(c) A writer.
(d) A sailor.

2. Which is the best interpretation of line 9, when the speaker urges "O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells"?
(a) The speaker is addressing the captain's spirit or ghost.
(b) The speaker realizes that the captain is not actually dead yet.
(c) The speaker is not yet aware that the captain has died.
(d) The speaker is having trouble accepting what has happened.

3. What is the most accurate way to describe the poem's stanza form?
(a) Sestet.
(b) Octave.
(c) Double tercet.
(d) Double quatrain.

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

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

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

4. Where is the ship in the beginning of the poem?

5. What is the rhyme pattern of the first four lines of each stanza?

(see the answer key)

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