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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

4. In which stanza does the speaker make it clear that this event happened some time in the past?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. 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.

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

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

7. 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?

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 meter of "The Solitary Reaper."

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

(see the answer keys)

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