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

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 plan or pattern.
(b) Tune or song.
(c) A narrative poem written in couplets.
(d) A reclining position.

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

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

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

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

6. Which stanza could be reasonably called the most positive in tone?
(a) The fourth.
(b) The first.
(c) The third.
(d) The second.

7. 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.

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

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

10. Where in the Highlands is the field where the woman is standing?
(a) By a river in the foothills.
(b) On the hillside.
(c) In a valley.
(d) At the top of a mountain.

11. What technique is used in phrases like "the Vale profound" (line 7) and "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?
(a) Imagery.
(b) Simile.
(c) Symbolism.
(d) Inversion.

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

13. In the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?
(a) The speaker.
(b) The reaper.
(c) Shepherds.
(d) Travelers.

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

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) Ordinary, everyday troubles.
(b) Modern political events.
(c) Love and romance.
(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. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?

3. 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"?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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