Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

1 What birds are mentioned at the poem's beginning and end?
Starlings

Swallows

Blue Jays

Sparrows
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Elegiac

Comedic

Enraged

Nostalgic
3 What religious imagery appears in the poem?
A wooden cross

A small church built from logs

Stained glass

A painted icon
4 What does the speaker say about the soldiers' personalities?
They are silent and unmoving

They cling to their beliefs fiercely, even in the face of death

Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They verbally express hopeful camaraderie to one another
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?
In a field in the aftermath of a battle

In the middle of a gunfight

In a battlefield hospital

In a tactical meeting
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?
The soldiers' faith in politicians

The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

The soldiers' grim determination to win
7 What is the poem's title referencing?
The signing of the Declaration of Independence

A whaling ship

A town in Massachusetts

A battle during the Civil War
8 What does the line "Fame or country least their care" describe?
The newfound understanding between the dying soldiers

The signing of a treaty

Soldiers returning home

Flying swallows
9 What is the poem's main thematic thread?
A historical reckoning with slavery

The history of a navy yard

The aftermath of war

Southern aristocratic values
10 Which of the following is NOT an image in the poem?
Bayonets

Swallows

A church

April rain
11 What is Shiloh's historical reputation?
A rallying cry for the Confederacy

A key victory for the Union

A Union surrender

A bitter stalement
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?
Robert E. Lee

Battlefield medics

Ulysses S. Grant

Anonymous soldiers
13 Which of the following is NOT a conflict in the poem?
The struggle of growing up

The collapse of a soldier's individual identity

A soldier's suppression of commonalities

The senseless carnage of war
14 Which of these lines contains assonance?
"Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain"

"Through the pause of night"

"The forest-field of Shiloh-"

"The swallows fly low"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?
"The church so lone, the log built one,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"

"Over the field in clouded days,"

"While over them the swallows skim,"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Stealthy and fast

Fearful and shaky

Dangerous and violent

Graceful and light
17 What is the rhyme scheme of lines 4-8?
ABAB

AABB

There isn't one

ABAC
18 What describes the mood of the weather in them poem?
Snowy and peaceful

Freezing and harsh

Rainy and somber

Sunny and happy
19 What image bookends the poem?
A graveyard

Rain clouds

A church

Swallows
20 What does "hushed" mean in the context of the poem?
It refers to the exit movement of an army from a town.

It refers to the passing of the wounded soldiers and the resulting silence.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.

It refers to the silence in a church service.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
4

7

2

8
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?
Assonance

All three

Rhyme

Metonymy
23 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia
Skim

Prayer

Hushed

Rain
24 What does the phrase "parting groan" most likely mean?
Annoyed message

Grumbled goodbye

Dying gasp

Bitter send off
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?
Famine

Taxes

Prejudice

War

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