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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What type of rhyme is employed in line 20, "From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won"?
(a) Internal rhyme.
(b) Identical rhyme.
(c) Near rhyme.
(d) Eye rhyme.

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

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

4. 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.

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

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

7. 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 is having trouble accepting what has happened.
(c) The speaker realizes that the captain is not actually dead yet.
(d) The speaker is not yet aware that the captain has died.

8. In context, the word "fearful" in line 1 indicates that the trip was which of the following?
(a) A metaphor for an internal struggle.
(b) The cause of the captain's death.
(c) A bad idea from the beginning.
(d) Full of frightening obstacles.

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

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

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

12. 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) Verse.
(b) Chorus.
(c) Refrain.
(d) Conceit.

13. Line 6, "O the bleeding drops of red," is an example of which technique?
(a) Conceit.
(b) Metonymy.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Imagery.

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

15. What is the most common type of metrical foot in "O Captain! My Captain!"?
(a) The dactyl.
(b) The trochee.
(c) The iamb.
(d) The spondee.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the speaker of the poem?

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

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

4. The list of ways the crowd is celebrating the arrival of the ship in lines 9-12 is an example of which technique?

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

(see the answer keys)

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