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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. Which of the following most clearly communicates the speaker's admiration for the reaper's singing ability?
(a) The poem's nature imagery.
(b) The repeated use of exclamation points.
(c) The metaphors in the second stanza.
(d) The poem's elevated diction.

2. In the fourth stanza, when the speaker finally places himself in the scene, what is it clear he is there to do?
(a) He is there to confess his love for the woman.
(b) He is delivering supplies.
(c) He is out walking.
(d) He is working on a farm.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?

3. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?

4. What do the metaphors in lines 9-12 and 13-16 have in common?

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. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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