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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "Still I Rise," Lines 1 - 43 .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the best definition of "beset" in line 6?
(a) Troubled.
(b) Decorated.
(c) Inspired.
(d) Cradled.

2. What technique does the first line of the poem, "You may write me down in history," introduce?
(a) Verbal irony.
(b) Catalog.
(c) Allegory.
(d) Apostrophe.

3. Which two things does the final stanza use to represent the past and present?
(a) Gathering clouds and rain.
(b) Night and daybreak.
(c) The directions east and west.
(d) A seed and a sprout.

4. What kind of "certainty" does the speaker claim to have in line 10?
(a) The "certainty of history."
(b) The "certainty of springtime."
(c) The "certainty of tides."
(d) The "certainty of air."

5. What body of water does the speaker claim to be in the eighth stanza?
(a) A river.
(b) A stream.
(c) An ocean.
(d) A lake.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the rhyme scheme of the first seven stanzas?

2. What is the primary quality that the speaker's stanza eight description of a body of water is intended to convey?

3. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?

4. Which is the most logical description of who "You" is in line 1?

5. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?

(see the answer key)

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