This quiz works best with JavaScript enabled. Home > English Literature > Genres > Poetry > American Poetry – Quiz 1 🏠 Homepage 📘 Download PDF Books 📕 Premium PDF Books American Poetry Quiz 1 (49 MCQs) Quiz Instructions Select an option to see the correct answer instantly. 1. As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of musings? She has a voice of gladness, and a smileAnd eloquence of beauty; and she glidesInto his darker musings, with a mildAnd healing sympathy that steals away A) Burial place or burial chamber. B) Amusement or merriment. C) Reflections or deep thoughts. D) Close relationship with someone or something. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Reflections or deep thoughts. 2. How does Jane Hirshfield address the connection between nature and spirituality in her poetry? A) Through a celebration of beauty despite suffering . B) Through an exploration of identity and connection with nature. C) With a reverence for nature and a Buddhist sensitivity to impermanence. D) Through vivid sensory images and intensely personal lyrical poetry. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) With a reverence for nature and a Buddhist sensitivity to impermanence. 3. Which of the following figurative language is used with the following sentence, "Life is a barren field?" A) Idiom. B) Alliteration. C) Simile. D) Metaphor. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Metaphor. 4. What poetic technique does Henry Wadsworth Longfellow use in this excerpt from the poem "The Day Is Done" ? The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight. A) Assonance. B) Iambic pentameter. C) Consonance. D) Enjambment. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Enjambment. 5. Which term means control or rule? A) Sway. B) Clime. C) Sanction. D) Strain. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Sway. 6. Which term means feel or express strong disapproval? A) Sanction. B) Outvie. C) Rove. D) Deplore. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Deplore. 7. What influences are reflected in Jane Hirshfield's poetry? A) Influences of Buddhism and Japanese court poetry. B) Influences of Latin American surrealism and spiritual consciousness. C) Influences of the romantic movement and the classical tradition. D) Influences of confessional poetry and contemporary narrative. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Influences of Buddhism and Japanese court poetry. 8. What is the supreme law of the U.S.? A) Bill of RIghts. B) Declaration of Independence. C) U.S. Constitution. D) The President. E) The People. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) U.S. Constitution. 9. In this excerpt from the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, what is the meaning of the word swain? Thine individual being, shalt thou goTo mix forever with the elements, To be a brother to the insensible rockAnd to the sluggish clod, which the rude swainTurns with his share, and treads upon. The oakShall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold. A) An unpleasant person. B) A young boy who hunts wild animals. C) A young vineyard worker. D) A young shepherd or country boy. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) A young shepherd or country boy. 10. A comparison between 2 unlike objects USING "like" or "as." A) Metaphor. B) Simile. C) Alliteration. D) All of the above. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Simile. 11. Who is known as the father of American Poetry? A) Wallace Stevens. B) Walt Whitman. C) Allan Poe. D) Langston Hughes. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Walt Whitman. 12. Which of our authors was a prisoner of war? A) Freneau. B) Wheatley. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Freneau. 13. What is an example of a positive tone? A) Critical. B) Concerned. C) Pessimistic. D) Hopeful. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Hopeful. 14. Which of our authors was college educated? A) Freneau. B) Wheatley. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Freneau. 15. What poetic style is exemplified in the following passage? There is a quiet spirit in these woods, That dwells where'er the gentle south-wind blows;Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade, The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air, The leaves above their sunny palms outspread.(from "The Spirit of Poetry" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) A) Blank verse. B) Enjambment. C) Iambic pentameter. D) None of above. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Blank verse. 16. Which term means official permission or approval? A) Sanction. B) Deplore. C) Sway. D) Despotic. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Sanction. 17. "And that has made all the difference" .Who wrote this? A) Robert Frost. B) Ezra Pound. C) Shakespeare. D) Walt Whitman. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Robert Frost. 18. Which of our authors never became a parent? A) Freneau. B) Wheatley. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Wheatley. 19. As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of mirth? Plod on, and each one as before will chaseHis favorite phantom; yet all these shall leaveTheir mirth and their employments, and shall comeAnd make their bed with thee. As the long train A) Amusement or merriment. B) Burial place or burial chamber. C) Reflection or deep thought. D) Close relationship with someone or something. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Amusement or merriment. 20. Which term means read or examine carefully? A) Rove. B) Outvie. C) Peruse. D) Deplore. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Peruse. 21. A direct comparison between two unlikely objects A) Simile. B) Metaphor. C) Alliteration. D) Onomatopoeia. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Metaphor. 22. "In Dream, " the author says, "Hold fast to dreams."Which of the following statement best describes its meaning? A) Hold to dreams before they disappear. B) If dreams go, life has no vision or goal. C) Life is a broken-winged bird. D) Without dreams life is a barren field. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) If dreams go, life has no vision or goal. 23. Which contemporary American poets have explored beauty despite the suffering and confusion of modern life? A) Joy Harjo, Sandra McPherson and Henri Cole. B) Gary Snyder, Robert Bly and Coleman Barks. C) Arthur Sze and Jane Hirshfield. D) Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Joy Harjo, Sandra McPherson and Henri Cole. 24. Giving human characteristics to non-human things is called? A) Simile. B) Humana. C) Personification. D) None of the above. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Personification. 25. What is transcendentalism A) Spiritual communion with nature. B) Death. C) Exploitation of nature. D) Fear of nature. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Spiritual communion with nature. 26. As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of communion? To him who in the love of nature holdsCommunion with her visible forms, she speaksA various language; for his gayer hoursShe has a voice of gladness, and a smile A) Burial place or burial chamber. B) Close relationship with someone or something. C) Deep thought or reflection. D) Amusement or merriment. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Close relationship with someone or something. 27. What characterizes Arthur Sze's poetry? A) A Zen sensibility and literal, meditative observations. B) An exploration of identity and connection to nature. C) A reverence for nature and a Buddhist sensitivity to impermanence. D) A poetry based on the image and the celebration of beauty. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) A Zen sensibility and literal, meditative observations. 28. Which sentence best describes the chief characteristics of blank verse? A) It is in iambic pentameter and doesn't rhyme. B) It is always made up of eight syllables and never rhymes. C) It can be in any kind of meter but must never rhyme. D) It is in iambic pentameter and must always rhyme. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) It is in iambic pentameter and doesn't rhyme. 29. Which term means to beat someone in competition? A) Rove. B) Clime. C) Deplore. D) Outvie. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Outvie. 30. As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of sepulchre? Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie downWith patriarchs of the infant world ..... with kings, The powerful of the earth ..... the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills A) Reflection or thought. B) Amusement or merriment. C) Close relationship. D) Burial place or chamber. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Burial place or chamber. 31. What poetic device is exemplified in the following excerpt? Be comforted; the world is very old, And generations pass, as they have passed, A troop of shadows moving with the sun;Thousands of times has the old tale been told;(from "A Shadow" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) A) Blank verse. B) Enjambment. C) Iambic pentameter. D) None of above. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Iambic pentameter. 32. In the poem, "I, Too" the speaker states he grow strong?What helps his growth? A) He works in the kitchen. B) He is American. C) He eats well. D) He laughs at company. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) He eats well. 33. What poetic device is exemplified in the following excerpt? Ah! what is not a dream by day To him whose eyes are cast On things around him with a ray Turned back upon the past?(from "A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe) A) Blank verse. B) Enjambment. C) Iambic pentameter. D) None of above. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Enjambment. 34. Who wrote the poem Birches? A) Emily Dickinson. B) Robert Frost. C) Allan Poe. D) Nathaniel Hawthorne. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Robert Frost. 35. Which term means like that of a tyrant? A) Sanction. B) Deplore. C) Sway. D) Despotic. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Despotic. 36. Which term means climate region? A) Sway. B) Strain. C) Clime. D) Sanction. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Clime. 37. Which term means feeling or expressing contempt? A) Sanction. B) Despotic. C) Outvie. D) Scornful. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Scornful. 38. What is the spiritual focus in contemporary American poetry? A) The exploration of identity and connection with nature. B) The celebration of beauty despite suffering and confusion. C) The relationship between the individual and a timeless essence beyond artistic beauty. D) Meditation on everyday life and human relationships. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) The relationship between the individual and a timeless essence beyond artistic beauty. 39. Which of these is the best definition of imagery? A) Anything that is literal. B) Giving a human trait to something non-human. C) Language that appeals to the reader's five senses. D) Descriptions that are not literally true. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Language that appeals to the reader's five senses. 40. Which of our authors was enslaved? A) Freneau. B) Wheatley. Show Answer Correct Answer: B) Wheatley. 41. How many syllables are in a line of poetry written in iambic pentameter? A) 10. B) 6. C) 8. D) 4. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) 10. 42. Words that START with the same sound and are used repeatedly in a sentence. A) Onomatopoeia. B) Simile. C) Alliteration. D) Metaphor. Show Answer Correct Answer: C) Alliteration. 43. Which term means song? A) Deplore. B) Sanction. C) Clime. D) Strain. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Strain. 44. Which line of poetry is written in iambic pentameter? A) Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon. B) Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;. C) Took a long reed for a pipe-stem,. D) To him who in the love of Nature holds. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) To him who in the love of Nature holds. 45. Which term means to wander? A) Rove. B) Deplore. C) Sanction. D) Outvie. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) Rove. 46. How is the word company used in the context of the sentence?"They send me to the kitchen when company comes."Company means (a) A) Business. B) Crowd of people. C) Family members. D) A visitors. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) A visitors. 47. True or False:Blank verse poetry rhymes. A) False. B) True. Show Answer Correct Answer: A) False. 48. Which term means friendly and cheerful? A) Sway. B) Scornful. C) Despotic. D) Genial. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Genial. 49. A technique a writer uses to produce a special effect in writing. A) Simile. B) Metaphor. C) Alliteration. D) Literary device. Show Answer Correct Answer: D) Literary device. 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