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

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

3. What do the metaphors in lines 9-12 and 13-16 have in common?
(a) They both compare the reaper to a bird.
(b) They both compare traveling to a specific time of year.
(c) They both compare the speaker to a traveler.
(d) The both compare music to a geographical location.

4. What technique is evident in the poem's opening line, "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1)?
(a) Apology.
(b) Analogy.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Allusion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15. 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.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

4. In the lines "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things," what does "plaintive numbers" refer to (lines 18-19)?

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

(see the answer keys)

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