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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the author of "The Solitary Reaper"?
(a) Percy Shelley.
(b) William Blake.
(c) William Wordsworth.
(d) John Keats.

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

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 song.
(b) The reaper's tears.
(c) The reaper's personal experience.
(d) Time and history.

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

5. What technique is used in phrases like "the Vale profound" (line 7) and "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?
(a) Simile.
(b) Imagery.
(c) Symbolism.
(d) Inversion.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in the line "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?

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

3. 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"?

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

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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