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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do all three sentences in the third stanza have in common?

2. Which line uses deliberate redundancy for emphasis?

3. What technique is evident in the poem's opening line, "Behold her, single in the field" (line 1)?

4. In the lines "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things," what does "plaintive numbers" refer to (lines 18-19)?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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.

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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that analyzes the multiple functions performed by the apostrophe to the reader in the poem's first stanza. Support your ideas with textual evidence.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about the relationship of past and present in "The Solitary Reaper." Be sure to defend your assertions with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the explicit treatment of music with the implicit treatment of poetry in "The Solitary Reaper." Support your claims with evidence from the text.

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