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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 all three sentences in the third stanza have in common?
(a) They are all questions.
(b) They are all periodic sentences.
(c) They are all run-ons.
(d) They are all fragments.

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

3. 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) Love and romance.
(c) Ordinary, everyday troubles.
(d) The beauty of the Highlands.

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 in a language the speaker does not understand.
(c) She is singing a song that she has made up herself.
(d) She is singing an old folk song that the speaker does not know the title of.

5. In which stanza does the speaker make it clear that this event happened some time in the past?
(a) The first.
(b) The fourth.
(c) The third.
(d) The second.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. The characterization of the woman as a "Highland Lass" indicates that she is a young woman from what area?

4. What is subtly appropriate about the meter in lines 25 and 26, "Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang / As if her song could have no ending"?

5. What is the "sickle" in line 28?

(see the answer key)

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