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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 out walking.
(b) He is there to confess his love for the woman.
(c) He is delivering supplies.
(d) He is working on a farm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. What is the "sickle" in line 28?
(a) A tied sheaf of grain.
(b) A handle used to pull a cart.
(c) A mark dyed into wool to track sheep.
(d) A sharp cutting tool.

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

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

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

14. 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) The beauty of the Highlands.
(d) Love and romance.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the meaning of the word "Yon" in line 2, "Yon solitary Highland Lass"?

2. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?

3. Who is the author of "The Solitary Reaper"?

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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