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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. 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 fourth.
(d) The third.

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

3. 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 singing a song that she has made up herself.
(c) She is too far away to be heard clearly.
(d) She is singing in a language the speaker does not understand.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the stanzaic form of "The Solitary Reaper"?

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

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"?

4. What is the young woman doing in the field?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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.

(see the answer keys)

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