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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 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 song.
(c) The reaper's tears.
(d) Time and history.

2. Besides that the reaper may be singing about some terrible moment in history, what else does the speaker guess she might be singing about?
(a) Love and romance.
(b) The beauty of the Highlands.
(c) Modern political events.
(d) Ordinary, everyday troubles.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following most clearly communicates the speaker's admiration for the reaper's singing ability?

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

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

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

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

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. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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