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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Solitary Reaper.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Besides that the reaper may be singing about some terrible moment in history, what else does the speaker guess she might be singing about?
(a) Ordinary, everyday troubles.
(b) The beauty of the Highlands.
(c) Love and romance.
(d) Modern political events.

2. What do all three sentences in the third stanza have in common?
(a) They are all questions.
(b) They are all fragments.
(c) They are all periodic sentences.
(d) They are all run-ons.

3. Which of the following most clearly communicates the speaker's admiration for the reaper's singing ability?
(a) The poem's elevated diction.
(b) The metaphors in the second stanza.
(c) The poem's nature imagery.
(d) The repeated use of exclamation points.

4. What reasonable inference can be made about the reaper from line 17, "Will no one tell me what she sings?"?
(a) She is singing an old folk song that the speaker does not know the title of.
(b) She is singing a song that she has made up herself.
(c) She is too far away to be heard clearly.
(d) She is singing in a language the speaker does not understand.

5. Where are "the farthest Hebrides" (line 16)?
(a) Chile.
(b) Australia.
(c) Russia.
(d) Scotland.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is subtly appropriate about the meter in lines 25 and 26, "Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang / As if her song could have no ending"?

2. What is the "sickle" in line 28?

3. What technique is evident in the line "Breaking the silence of the seas" (line 15)?

4. What technique is used in phrases like "the Vale profound" (line 7) and "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?

5. How does line 3, "Reaping and singing by herself," interrupt the poem's dominant metrical pattern?

(see the answer key)

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