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

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

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

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

5. From context, what is is likely meaning of "single" in line 1, "Behold her, single in the field"?
(a) Simple.
(b) Unmarried.
(c) Honest.
(d) Alone.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is evident in the poem's opening line, "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1)?

2. Where in the Highlands is the field where the woman is standing?

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

4. What technique is evident in the line "Breaking the silence of the seas" (line 15)?

5. What is the meaning of the word "Yon" in line 2, "Yon solitary Highland Lass"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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. 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?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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