Poetry Test 2 – DIRECTIONS: DO NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST. Bubble the letter for the best
answer on your answer document. (4 points each for multiple choice questions)
The Open Window
by Edward Rowland Sill
My tower was grimly built,
With many a bolt and bar,
“And here,” I thought, “I will keep my life
From the bitter world afar.”
Dark and chill was the stony floor,
Where never a sunbeam lay,
And the mold crept up on the dreary wall,
With its ghost touch, day by day.
One morn, in my sullen musings,
A flutter and cry I heard;
And close at the rusty casement
There clung a frightened bird.
Then back I flung the shutter
That was never before undone,
And I kept till its wings were rested
The little weary one.
But in through the open window,
Which I had forgot to close,
There had burst a gush of sunshine
And a summer scent of rose.
For all the while I had burrowed
There in my dingy tower,
Lo! The birds had sung and the leaves had danced
From hour to sunny hour.
And such balm and warmth and beauty
Came drifting in since then,
That the window still stands open
And shall never be shut again.
1. Why did the speaker MOST likely lock himself away?
a. He believed the world was a bitter and nasty place to live.
b. He wanted to live in a tower.
c. He did not like sunlight or the smell of roses and fresh air.
d. He was afraid of birds.
2. Why did the speaker open the shutters?
a. He wanted to see sunlight.
b. He liked the smell of roses.
c. He heard something outside the window.
d. He wanted to know if it was summer.
3. What changed the speaker’s mind about the outside world?
a. forgetting to close the shutters
c. being warmed by the sunshine
b. seeing ghosts in his tower
d. staying in the dark tower
The Sky at Night
I love to watch the sky at night,
It’s always full of wondrous sights.
The moon floating across the sky,
I see its changing shape up high.
The stars shining their yellow light,
Twinkling down and staying so bright.
The North Star shines with all its might,
It guides lost people through the night.
4. Which of these is the rhyme scheme for the first stanza?
a. a b c b
c. a b a b
b. a a b b
d. a b b a
5. This poem has a set rhythm. Each line has how many syllables?
a. 6
c. 8
b. 7
d. 9
6. Which line contains personification?
a. 1
b. 3
c. 7
d. 8
What Use Is It to Slumber Here
by Emily Bronte
What use is it to slumber here
Though the heart be sad and weary?
What use is it to slumber here
Though the day rise dark and dreary?
For that mist may break when the sun is high,
And this soul forget its sorrow,
And the rosy ray of the closing day
May promise a brighter morrow.
7. The poet repeats the title twice in the poem to
a. help you remember it.
c. tell you the main idea of the poem.
b. create a rhyming scheme.
d. compare two unlike things.
8. Which of these lines contains an example of assonance?
a. “What use is it to slumber here”
b. “Though the day rise dark and dreary”
c. “For that mist may break when the sun is high”
d. “And the rosy ray of the closing day”
In the Fall
I proudly spread my branches on this crisp fall morning.
Shading the park, my arms protect the people below.
Children running,
People talking,
Laughter everywhere.
My crackling leaves drift slowly and gently toward the ground,
Weaving a colorful blanket, spreading over benches and paths.
Orange patches,
Red patches,
Colors everywhere.
9. Which of these is an example of personification in the first stanza?
a. The setting is described as a crisp fall morning.
b. The speaker’s arms are referred to as branches.
c. The tree’s branches are referred to as arms.
d. People in the park are talking and laughing.
10. What imagery comes to mind when you read the second stanza?
a. People are wearing the leaves to stay warm.
b. The trees are bare and winter is coming.
c. Leaves are being used to make patches for blankets.
d. Fall leaves cover the ground like a patchwork quilt.
11. Which word from the poem is an example of onomatopoeia?
a. shading
c. weaving
b. crackling
d. spreading
The Flower-Fed Buffaloes
By Vachel Lindsay
The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago,
Ranged where the locomotives sing
And the prairie flowers lie low;
The tossing, blooming, perfumed grass,
Is swept away by wheat,
Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by
In the spring that still is sweet.
But the flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
Left us long ago.
They gore no more, they bellow no more,
They trundle around the hills no more—
With the Blackfeet lying low,
With the Pawnees lying low.
12. Which group of words from the poem is an example of consonance?
a. “flower-fed buffaloes”
c. “left us long”
b. “still is sweet”
d. “trundle around”
13. The poet uses the buffaloes as a symbol of
a. how life has improved out West.
b. the need to plant more prairie flowers.
c. a past destroyed by the movement West.
d. the need for more train travel.
A Summer Day on the Prairie
The sun is a smoldering fire,
That creeps through the high gray plain,
And leaves not a bush of cloud
To blossom with flowers of rain.
The sun is like an eagle old,
There in the windless west.
Atop of the spirit-cliffs
He builds him a crimson nest.
14. The first stanza is a metaphor that compares
a. burning fires to rain.
c. the sun to a fire.
b. bushes to flowers.
d. the sun to rain clouds.
15. Which line from the poem is an example of a simile?
a. “The sun is a smoldering fire”
c. “The sun is like an eagle old”
b. “And leaves not a bush of cloud”
d. “Atop of the spirit-cliffs”
Satellite
Somewhere out in the ink of the night
is a gleaming, silver satellite.
A pincushion of tin, it blinks and it beeps,
as it circles the Earth, never stopping to sleep.
Its antennas stick out like strange looking limbs,
like a tiny toy top as above us it spins.
This machine floats in the velvet night,
seemingly weightless as a child’s kite.
Radio waves bounce off its shell,
Sending signals to Earth clear as a bell.
Round and round the globe it goes,
Spreading news and weather for us to know!
16. What is meant by “the ink of the night”?
a. darkness
c. silver
b. sleep
d. tin
17. The satellite is compared to
a. the night.
b. the earth.
c. an antenna.
d. a pincushion.
18. Which generalization could be made about satellites from reading this poem?
a. They move very quickly.
c. They look and sound odd.
b. They all look exactly the same.
d. They can be found anywhere.
19. Line 8 is an example of which type of figurative language?
a. metaphor
b. personification
c. onomatopoeia
d. simile
20. The entire poem is mostly comprised (made up of) or which type of figurative language?
a. metaphor
b. personification
c. onomatopoeia
d. simile
For numbers 21 – 24 use the poems on the Promethean board.
21. In “The Sea” which line does not demonstrates the metaphor between the sea and the sounds
of a church?
a. The space is full of echoes,
b. The organ shines and plays.
c. Hymns echo through the whole ocean.
d. The pulpit is solemn,
22. In “Fog” what is the metaphor behind the first and second lines?
a. The fog and cats are sneaky.
b. The fog and cats are gray.
c. The fog and cats are silent.
d. The fog and cats are soft.
23. In “Clouds” what does the blue hill represent metaphorically?
a. sea
b. sky
c. space
d. a blue colored hill
24. Choose one type of figurative language featured in one of the poems on the Promethean.
Identify the poem and the type of figurative language (2 points). Define in your own words (3
points) that type of figurative language. Provide the example of that type from the poem. (3 points)
You may not use an example from the test.