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

2. Who is the author of "The Solitary Reaper"?
(a) Percy Shelley.
(b) William Blake.
(c) John Keats.
(d) William Wordsworth.

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

4. What technique is employed in lines 7 and 8, "O listen! for the Vale profound / Is overflowing with the sound"?
(a) Antanaclasis.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Metonymy.
(d) Cacophony.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

5. Which stanza could be reasonably called the most positive in tone?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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