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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. In the lines "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things," what does "plaintive numbers" refer to (lines 18-19)?
(a) The reaper's tears.
(b) The reaper's personal experience.
(c) The song.
(d) Time and history.

4. In the fourth stanza, when the speaker finally places himself in the scene, what is it clear he is there to do?
(a) He is working on a farm.
(b) He is there to confess his love for the woman.
(c) He is out walking.
(d) He is delivering supplies.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the best interpretation of line 6's reference to "a melancholy strain"?

2. What is the stanzaic form of "The Solitary Reaper"?

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

4. What is the meaning of the word "Yon" in line 2, "Yon solitary Highland Lass"?

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

(see the answer key)

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