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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 is the meaning of the word "lay" in the line "Or is it some more humble lay" (line 21)?
(a) A plan or pattern.
(b) Tune or song.
(c) A reclining position.
(d) A narrative poem written in couplets.

2. 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"?
(a) Line 25 begins with a dactyl, emphasizing the importance of the content of the reaper's song.
(b) The contraction in line 25 creates a second line of trimeter in this stanza, emphasizing the musicality of the song.
(c) Line 26 has four metrical feet instead of the expected three, creating a feeling of "lingering."
(d) The feminine ending of line 26 emphasizes the idea of something that does not end when it is expected to.

3. What do the metaphors in lines 9-12 and 13-16 have in common?
(a) The both compare music to a geographical location.
(b) They both compare the speaker to a traveler.
(c) They both compare traveling to a specific time of year.
(d) They both compare the reaper to a bird.

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

5. What technique is evident in the line "Breaking the silence of the seas" (line 15)?
(a) Sibilance.
(b) Synesthesia.
(c) Onomatopoeia.
(d) Aphorismus.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where are "the farthest Hebrides" (line 16)?

2. What reasonable inference can be made about the reaper from line 17, "Will no one tell me what she sings?"?

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

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

5. What do all three sentences in the third stanza have in common?

(see the answer key)

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