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

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

3. What is the "sickle" in line 28?
(a) A tied sheaf of grain.
(b) A mark dyed into wool to track sheep.
(c) A handle used to pull a cart.
(d) A sharp cutting tool.

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

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 singing an old folk song that the speaker does not know the title of.
(c) She is too far away to be heard clearly.
(d) She is singing in a language the speaker does not understand.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which stanza could be reasonably called the most positive in tone?

2. Who is the author of "The Solitary Reaper"?

3. What is the meaning of the word "lay" in the line "Or is it some more humble lay" (line 21)?

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

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

(see the answer key)

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