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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the best interpretation of line 6's reference to "a melancholy strain"?
(a) Hard work.
(b) Persistent pain.
(c) A sad song.
(d) A difficult burden.

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

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

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

5. From context, what is is likely meaning of "single" in line 1, "Behold her, single in the field"?
(a) Simple.
(b) Unmarried.
(c) Alone.
(d) Honest.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?

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

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

4. What technique is evident in the poem's opening line, "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1)?

5. In the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?

(see the answer key)

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