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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 reclining position.
(b) Tune or song.
(c) A narrative poem written in couplets.
(d) A plan or pattern.

2. In which stanza does the speaker make it clear that this event happened some time in the past?
(a) The first.
(b) The third.
(c) The second.
(d) The fourth.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In line 4, "Stop here, or gently pass!" what is the grammatical mood of the words "stop" and "pass"?

2. Besides that the reaper may be singing about some terrible moment in history, what else does the speaker guess she might be singing about?

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

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

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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