Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

By John Melendez · Edited by James Cooper · Last reviewed December 21, 2021

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

Swallows

Sparrows

Blue Jays

Starlings
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?

Elegiac

Nostalgic

Comedic

Enraged
3 What religious imagery appears in the poem?

A wooden cross

A painted icon

Stained glass

A small church built from logs
4 What does the speaker say about the soldiers' personalities?

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

They are silent and unmoving
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?

In a battlefield hospital

In a tactical meeting

In a field in the aftermath of a battle

In the middle of a gunfight
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?

The soldiers' grim determination to win

The soldiers' faith in politicians

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

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

The signing of the Declaration of Independence

A whaling ship

A battle during the Civil War

A town in Massachusetts
8 What does the line "Fame or country least their care" describe?

The signing of a treaty

The newfound understanding between the dying soldiers

Soldiers returning home

Flying swallows
9 What is the poem's main thematic thread?

The history of a navy yard

The aftermath of war

Southern aristocratic values

A historical reckoning with slavery
10 Which of the following is NOT an image in the poem?

Bayonets

A church

Swallows

April rain
11 What is Shiloh's historical reputation?

A key victory for the Union

A rallying cry for the Confederacy

A Union surrender

A bitter stalement
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?

Ulysses S. Grant

Anonymous soldiers

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 swallows fly low"

"The forest-field of Shiloh-"

"Through the pause of night"

"Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?

"The church so lone, the log built one,"

"Over the field in clouded days,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"

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

Fearful and shaky

Dangerous and violent

Stealthy and fast

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

ABAB

ABAC

There isn't one

AABB
18 What describes the mood of the weather in them poem?

Rainy and somber

Snowy and peaceful

Freezing and harsh

Sunny and happy
19 What image bookends the poem?

A graveyard

Rain clouds

Swallows

A church
20 What does "hushed" mean in the context of the poem?

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

It refers to the exit movement of an army from a town.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.

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

2

8

7

4
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?

All three

Metonymy

Assonance

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

Skim

Prayer

Rain

Hushed
24 What does the phrase "parting groan" most likely mean?

Annoyed message

Grumbled goodbye

Bitter send off

Dying gasp
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?

Famine

Taxes

War

Prejudice

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