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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 having trouble accepting what has happened.
(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 realizes that the captain is not actually dead yet.

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

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

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

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

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

7. 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.

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

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

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

11. 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.

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

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

14. What is a "keel" (line 4)?
(a) A measurement of the speed a ship is traveling.
(b) A flat structure at the bottom of a ship, designed to add stability.
(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.

15. The list of ways the crowd is celebrating the arrival of the ship in lines 9-12 is an example of which technique?
(a) Accumulation.
(b) Periphrasis.
(c) Understatement.
(d) Paraprosdokian.

Short Answer Questions

1. The poem's title and first line contain an example of which technique?

2. In context, the literal meaning of the word "rack" in line two is which of the following?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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