View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. Which is the best interpretation of line 6's reference to "a melancholy strain"?
(a) Hard work.
(b) A sad song.
(c) Persistent pain.
(d) A difficult burden.

5. 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.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the metaphors in lines 9-12 and 13-16 have in common?

2. Where are "the farthest Hebrides" (line 16)?

3. Where in the Highlands is the field where the woman is standing?

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

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

(see the answer key)

This section contains 320 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample