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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?
(a) Cacophony.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Antanaclasis.
(d) Metonymy.

2. Which stanza could be reasonably called the most positive in tone?
(a) The fourth.
(b) The second.
(c) The third.
(d) The first.

3. What is the meaning of the word "Yon" in line 2, "Yon solitary Highland Lass"?
(a) My.
(b) Nearby, this one.
(c) You.
(d) Over there, that one.

4. How does line 3, "Reaping and singing by herself," interrupt the poem's dominant metrical pattern?
(a) It ends with a trochee.
(b) It begins with a trochee.
(c) It begins with a spondee.
(d) It ends with a spondee.

5. In the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?
(a) Shepherds.
(b) The reaper.
(c) The speaker.
(d) Travelers.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the metaphors in lines 9-12 and 13-16 have in common?

2. In the lines "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things," what does "plaintive numbers" refer to (lines 18-19)?

3. Where in the Highlands is the field where the woman is standing?

4. 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"?

5. Which of the following most clearly communicates the speaker's admiration for the reaper's singing ability?

(see the answer key)

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