View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is used in the line "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?
(a) Contraction.
(b) Verbal irony.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Litotes.

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

3. The characterization of the woman as a "Highland Lass" indicates that she is a young woman from what area?
(a) Ireland.
(b) Wales.
(c) Scotland.
(d) The Hebrides.

4. In the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?
(a) Travelers.
(b) The reaper.
(c) The speaker.
(d) Shepherds.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?

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

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

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

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)

This section contains 316 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample