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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Besides that the reaper may be singing about some terrible moment in history, what else does the speaker guess she might be singing about?
(a) Modern political events.
(b) The beauty of the Highlands.
(c) Ordinary, everyday troubles.
(d) Love and romance.

2. 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.

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 reaper's tears.
(c) The reaper's personal experience.
(d) The song.

4. What technique is evident in the poem's opening line, "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1)?
(a) Analogy.
(b) Apostrophe.
(c) Allusion.
(d) Apology.

5. From context, what is is likely meaning of "single" in line 1, "Behold her, single in the field"?
(a) Simple.
(b) Unmarried.
(c) Honest.
(d) Alone.

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. What is the stanzaic form of "The Solitary Reaper"?

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

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

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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