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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What feature of the Captain's face does line 17 focus on?
(a) His brow.
(b) His mouth.
(c) His chin.
(d) His eyes.

2. What is the rhyme pattern of the first four lines of each stanza?
(a) ABBA.
(b) ABCB.
(c) AABB.
(d) ABAC.

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

4. 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 realizes that the captain is not actually dead yet.
(b) The speaker is not yet aware that the captain has died.
(c) The speaker is addressing the captain's spirit or ghost.
(d) The speaker is having trouble accepting what has happened.

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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) Full of frightening obstacles.
(c) A metaphor for an internal struggle.
(d) A bad idea from the beginning.

11. The poem's title and first line contain an example of which technique?
(a) Synechdoche.
(b) Simile.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Personification.

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

13. 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.

14. 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) Periphrasis.
(c) Accumulation.
(d) Paraprosdokian.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Line 6, "O the bleeding drops of red," is an example of which technique?

3. Line 5, " But O heart! heart! heart!" is an example of which technique?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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