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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 third.
(c) The fourth.
(d) The first.

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

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) Love and romance.
(b) Ordinary, everyday troubles.
(c) Modern political events.
(d) The beauty of the Highlands.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. Which of the following most clearly communicates the speaker's admiration for the reaper's singing ability?

4. In line 4, "Stop here, or gently pass!" what is the grammatical mood of the words "stop" and "pass"?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

3. Describe the rhyme scheme 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. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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