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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In line 4, "Stop here, or gently pass!" what is the grammatical mood of the words "stop" and "pass"?
(a) Imperative.
(b) Interrogative.
(c) Subjunctive.
(d) Indicative.

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

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

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

5. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?
(a) "For old, unhappy, far-off things" (line 19).
(b) "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1).
(c) "I listened, motionless and still" (line 29).
(d) "Stop here, or gently pass" (line 4).

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer key)

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