View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Stanzas four through six have which techniques in common?
(a) Second person and imperative mood.
(b) Second person and indicative mood.
(c) First person and indicative mood.
(d) First person and imperative mood.

2. The relationship between stanza two and stanza three is most accurately expressed by which of the following?
(a) Stanza three exposes the inherent contradictions in the ideas about loss advanced by stanza two.
(b) Stanza three provides hyperbolic examples of the effects of loss proposed in stanza two.
(c) Stanza three extends the small, everyday losses in stanza two into more serious and personal territory.
(d) Stanza three repeats the emotional plea of stanza two in a more logical and rational form.

3. In the first stanza, what does the speaker suggest makes the loss of some things especially easy to accept?
(a) They seem to want to get lost.
(b) They are part of a distant past.
(c) They are difficult to live with.
(d) They are small and insignificant.

4. What is the rhyme scheme of the first five stanzas of "One Art"?
(a) ABB.
(b) AAB.
(c) ABA.
(d) AAA.

5. What does the colon at the end of line 7, "Then practice losing farther, losing faster," indicate about the "places, and names" in line 8?
(a) Places and names are examples of things that can be lost "farther" and "faster."
(b) Places and names are some of the last things that a person loses.
(c) Places and names are examples of things a person can only lose through "practice" and experience.
(d) Places and names are more upsetting to lose than small objects and small amounts of time.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is employed in line 16, "Even losing you"?

2. What is a reasonable statement to make about the effect of the enjambment in lines 8 and 9, "places, and names, and where it was you meant/ to travel"?

3. Which word in lines 10 and 11, "And look! my last,/ or next-to-last, of three loved houses went," creates a momentary shift in verb mood?

4. What kind of metrical foot is the most frequent in "One Art"?

5. In line 10, what does the speaker admit to having lost?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the form of "One Art."

2. On the surface level, what is the main message of "One Art"?

3. How does the speaker arrange the examples of things that can be lost?

4. How does the change in stanza structure in the final stanza mimic the poem's changing meaning?

5. What is the poem's dominant meter, and how is it regularly interrupted?

6. To whom is the parenthetical comment "(Write it!)" addressed in line 19, and how does this comment impact the reader's understanding of the poem?

7. Which two verb moods are used in "One Art," and where are they employed?

8. How does the speaker's diction increase the emotional stakes as the poem progresses?

9. What are the refrains employed in "One Art"?

10. What difference is there in the way the two refrain lines are repeated throughout the poem?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,072 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample