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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 is the meaning of the word "lay" in the line "Or is it some more humble lay" (line 21)?
(a) A narrative poem written in couplets.
(b) Tune or song.
(c) A reclining position.
(d) A plan or pattern.

2. Which of the following most clearly communicates the speaker's admiration for the reaper's singing ability?
(a) The metaphors in the second stanza.
(b) The poem's elevated diction.
(c) The poem's nature imagery.
(d) The repeated use of exclamation points.

3. Where are "the farthest Hebrides" (line 16)?
(a) Australia.
(b) Chile.
(c) Scotland.
(d) Russia.

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 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?

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

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

4. What is the young woman doing in the field?

5. From context, what is is likely meaning of "single" in line 1, "Behold her, single in the field"?

(see the answer key)

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