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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?
(a) Metonymy.
(b) Antanaclasis.
(c) Hyperbole.
(d) Cacophony.

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

4. What is the stanzaic form of "The Solitary Reaper"?
(a) Ottava rima.
(b) Ballade.
(c) Octave.
(d) Octet.

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

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

7. 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"?
(a) The contraction in line 25 creates a second line of trimeter in this stanza, emphasizing the musicality of the song.
(b) The feminine ending of line 26 emphasizes the idea of something that does not end when it is expected to.
(c) Line 25 begins with a dactyl, emphasizing the importance of the content of the reaper's song.
(d) Line 26 has four metrical feet instead of the expected three, creating a feeling of "lingering."

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

9. 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.

10. What is the meaning of the word "Yon" in line 2, "Yon solitary Highland Lass"?
(a) You.
(b) Nearby, this one.
(c) Over there, that one.
(d) My.

11. 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 begins with a spondee.
(d) It ends with a trochee.

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

13. 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 repeated use of exclamation points.
(c) The poem's elevated diction.
(d) The poem's nature imagery.

14. What is the young woman doing in the field?
(a) Harvesting a grain crop.
(b) Watching the speaker from the hillside.
(c) Pushing a cart down a path.
(d) Watching over grazing sheep.

15. 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) The beauty of the Highlands.
(b) Modern political events.
(c) Love and romance.
(d) Ordinary, everyday troubles.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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