Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

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

Sparrows

Starlings

Swallows
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Nostalgic

Enraged

Elegiac

Comedic
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 verbally express hopeful camaraderie to one another

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

Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They are silent and unmoving
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?
In a field in the aftermath of a battle

In a battlefield hospital

In a tactical meeting

In the middle of a gunfight
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?
The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

The soldiers' grim determination to win

The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess

The soldiers' faith in politicians
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

Southern aristocratic values

The aftermath of war

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

Bayonets

A church

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

A Union surrender

A key victory for the Union

A rallying cry for the Confederacy
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?
Robert E. Lee

Ulysses S. Grant

Battlefield medics

Anonymous soldiers
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,"

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

"While over them the swallows skim,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Stealthy and fast

Fearful and shaky

Graceful and light

Dangerous and violent
17 What is the rhyme scheme of lines 4-8?
There isn't one

AABB

ABAC

ABAB
18 What describes the mood of the weather in them poem?
Rainy and somber

Freezing and harsh

Snowy and peaceful

Sunny and happy
19 What image bookends the poem?
Rain clouds

A graveyard

A church

Swallows
20 What does "hushed" mean in the context of the poem?
It refers to the silence in a church service.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.

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.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
2

4

7

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

Rhyme

Assonance

Metonymy
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

Dying gasp

Grumbled goodbye

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

War

Taxes

Prejudice

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