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

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 working on a farm.
(b) He is there to confess his love for the woman.
(c) He is delivering supplies.
(d) He is out walking.

3. What is the meaning of the word "lay" in the line "Or is it some more humble lay" (line 21)?
(a) Tune or song.
(b) A plan or pattern.
(c) A reclining position.
(d) A narrative poem written in couplets.

4. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?
(a) "For old, unhappy, far-off things" (line 19).
(b) "I listened, motionless and still" (line 29).
(c) "Stop here, or gently pass" (line 4).
(d) "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1).

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does line 3, "Reaping and singing by herself," interrupt the poem's dominant metrical pattern?

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

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

4. Besides that the reaper may be singing about some terrible moment in history, what else does the speaker guess she might be singing about?

5. Who is the author of "The Solitary Reaper"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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