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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 definition for "trod" in the context of line 3?
(a) Throw or hurl downward.
(b) Press down with the foot.
(c) Drag along the floor or earth.
(d) The sound of footsteps.

2. What techniques are used in line 19, "’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines"?
(a) Onomatopoeia and alliteration.
(b) Assonance and sibilance.
(c) Alliteration and assonance.
(d) Sibilance and onomatopoeia.

3. In the fourth stanza, what kind of person does the speaker ask if "you" want her to be?
(a) Distant and uninvolved.
(b) Angry and afraid.
(c) Tired and distracted.
(d) Sad and meek.

4. In the final quatrain, what does the speaker wonder about upsetting "you" with?
(a) Kindness.
(b) Intelligence.
(c) Sexiness.
(d) Beauty.

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

6. How does the speaker characterize herself in line 4?
(a) Brave and perseverent.
(b) Lively and confident.
(c) Lighthearted and silly.
(d) Intelligent and curious.

7. Why is the speaker's past "rooted in pain" (line 32)?
(a) Because of the death of a loved one.
(b) Because she has been abandoned by someone she loves.
(c) Because of bigotry and discrimination.
(d) Because no one appreciates her value.

8. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?
(a) Simile.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Juxtaposition.
(d) Personification.

9. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?
(a) Parallelism.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Dialect.
(d) Allusion.

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

11. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?
(a) Allegory.
(b) Allusion.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Juxtaposition.

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

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

14. In line 17, what kind of a person is described by the word "haughtiness"?
(a) Mean-spirited and petty.
(b) Strange and eccentric.
(c) Sneaky and dishonest.
(d) Arrogant and proud.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which technique is frequently used at the beginnings of 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 precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?

4. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?

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

(see the answer keys)

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