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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 too far away to be heard clearly.
(c) She is singing in a language the speaker does not understand.
(d) She is singing an old folk song that the speaker does not know the title of.

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

3. 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) Love and romance.
(c) Modern political events.
(d) Ordinary, everyday troubles.

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

5. 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 feminine ending of line 26 emphasizes the idea of something that does not end when it is expected to.
(b) Line 26 has four metrical feet instead of the expected three, creating a feeling of "lingering."
(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.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which stanza could be reasonably called the most positive in tone?

2. How does line 3, "Reaping and singing by herself," interrupt the poem's dominant metrical pattern?

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the names of the two forms of poetry that are combined in this poem, and how are they combined?

2. Describe the tense shift in "The Solitary Reaper" and explain what it reveals about the poem's narrative present.

3. Summarize the action of "The Solitary Reaper."

4. What question does the speaker ask in the third stanza, and what two contrasting answers does he speculate about?

5. How does the speaker's line 26 description of the reaper singing "As if her song could have no ending" reinforce the meaning of the poem's ending?

6. Explain how the mention of "spring-time" in line 14's description of the cuckoo enhances the contrast between this image and the image of the nightingale.

7. In what way do the places associated with the two birds create a dramatic contrast with one another?

8. To which two birds does the speaker compare the reaper, and what area of the world does the speaker associate with each?

9. Describe the rhyme scheme of "The Solitary Reaper."

10. Describe the meter of "The Solitary Reaper."

(see the answer keys)

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