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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 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 the reaper to a bird.
(c) The both compare music to a geographical location.
(d) They both compare traveling to a specific time of year.

2. Where in the Highlands is the field where the woman is standing?
(a) At the top of a mountain.
(b) In a valley.
(c) By a river in the foothills.
(d) On the hillside.

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 sharp cutting tool.
(d) A handle used to pull a cart.

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

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 in a language the speaker does not understand.
(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 a song that she has made up herself.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What technique is evident in the line "Breaking the silence of the seas" (line 15)?

3. What technique is used in phrases like "the Vale profound" (line 7) and "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?

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

5. In which stanza does the speaker make it clear that this event happened some time in the past?

(see the answer key)

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