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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 the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?
(a) The speaker.
(b) The reaper.
(c) Shepherds.
(d) Travelers.

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

3. What do all three sentences in the third stanza have in common?
(a) They are all periodic sentences.
(b) They are all questions.
(c) They are all run-ons.
(d) They are all fragments.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What technique is used in phrases like "the Vale profound" (line 7) and "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?

4. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?

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"?

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 meter of "The Solitary Reaper."

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

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

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

7. 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.

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

9. Summarize the action 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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