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

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. 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 26 has four metrical feet instead of the expected three, creating a feeling of "lingering."
(d) Line 25 begins with a dactyl, emphasizing the importance of the content of the reaper's song.

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

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

6. What technique is used in the line "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?
(a) Litotes.
(b) Contraction.
(c) Verbal irony.
(d) Paradox.

7. What reasonable inference can be made about the reaper from line 17, "Will no one tell me what she sings?"?
(a) She is singing an old folk song that the speaker does not know the title of.
(b) She is too far away to be heard clearly.
(c) She is singing in a language the speaker does not understand.
(d) She is singing a song that she has made up herself.

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

9. 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.

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

11. 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 poem's nature imagery.
(c) The repeated use of exclamation points.
(d) The metaphors in the second stanza.

12. In the fourth stanza, when the speaker finally places himself in the scene, what is it clear he is there to do?
(a) He is working on a farm.
(b) He is delivering supplies.
(c) He is there to confess his love for the woman.
(d) He is out walking.

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

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

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

Short Answer 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?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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