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

2. The characterization of the woman as a "Highland Lass" indicates that she is a young woman from what area?
(a) The Hebrides.
(b) Ireland.
(c) Scotland.
(d) Wales.

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 fragments.
(d) They are all run-ons.

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

5. What technique is evident in the poem's opening line, "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1)?
(a) Apology.
(b) Apostrophe.
(c) Analogy.
(d) Allusion.

Short Answer Questions

1. What reasonable inference can be made about the reaper from line 17, "Will no one tell me what she sings?"?

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

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

4. From context, what is is likely meaning of "single" in line 1, "Behold her, single in the field"?

5. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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

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

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

8. 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.

9. Describe the rhyme scheme 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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