View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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"?
(a) Line 26 has four metrical feet instead of the expected three, creating a feeling of "lingering."
(b) The feminine ending of line 26 emphasizes the idea of something that does not end when it is expected to.
(c) The contraction in line 25 creates a second line of trimeter in this stanza, emphasizing the musicality of the song.
(d) Line 25 begins with a dactyl, emphasizing the importance of the content of the reaper's song.

2. 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.

3. What is the stanzaic form of "The Solitary Reaper"?
(a) Ottava rima.
(b) Ballade.
(c) Octave.
(d) Octet.

4. In the lines "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things," what does "plaintive numbers" refer to (lines 18-19)?
(a) The reaper's personal experience.
(b) The reaper's tears.
(c) Time and history.
(d) The song.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In the fourth stanza, when the speaker finally places himself in the scene, what is it clear he is there to do?

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

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

4. What technique is used in phrases like "the Vale profound" (line 7) and "A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard" (line 13)?

5. In the second stanza, to whom is the nightingale depicted singing?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,038 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample