Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

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

Starlings

Sparrows

Blue Jays
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Comedic

Enraged

Nostalgic

Elegiac
3 What religious imagery appears in the poem?
A small church built from logs

A wooden cross

A painted icon

Stained glass
4 What does the speaker say about the soldiers' personalities?
They are silent and unmoving

They verbally express hopeful camaraderie to one another

Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They cling to their beliefs fiercely, even in the face of death
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?
In a battlefield hospital

In a tactical meeting

In the middle of a gunfight

In a field in the aftermath of a battle
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?
The soldiers' grim determination to win

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

The soldiers' faith in politicians

The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess
7 What is the poem's title referencing?
A whaling ship

A town in Massachusetts

A battle during the Civil War

The signing of the Declaration of Independence
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?
A church

Swallows

Bayonets

April rain
11 What is Shiloh's historical reputation?
A bitter stalement

A key victory for the Union

A rallying cry for the Confederacy

A Union surrender
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?
Anonymous soldiers

Ulysses S. Grant

Battlefield medics

Robert E. Lee
13 Which of the following is NOT a conflict in the poem?
The senseless carnage of war

A soldier's suppression of commonalities

The struggle of growing up

The collapse of a soldier's individual identity
14 Which of these lines contains assonance?
"The forest-field of Shiloh-"

"Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain"

"The swallows fly low"

"Through the pause of night"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?
"Over the field in clouded days,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"

"While over them the swallows skim,"

"The church so lone, the log built one,"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Graceful and light

Stealthy and fast

Fearful and shaky

Dangerous and violent
17 What is the rhyme scheme of lines 4-8?
AABB

There isn't one

ABAC

ABAB
18 What describes the mood of the weather in them poem?
Sunny and happy

Freezing and harsh

Snowy and peaceful

Rainy and somber
19 What image bookends the poem?
A graveyard

Swallows

A church

Rain clouds
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 silence in a church service.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.

It refers to the passing of the wounded soldiers and the resulting silence.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
2

8

4

7
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?
Metonymy

Assonance

All three

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

Hushed

Prayer

Rain
24 What does the phrase "parting groan" most likely mean?
Bitter send off

Grumbled goodbye

Dying gasp

Annoyed message
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?
War

Famine

Prejudice

Taxes

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