The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is an aging hunter

The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified
2 How does the buck die?
The cause of the death is never stated

From disease

From the cold

From hunters
3 Which sound creates alliteration in the phrase "Under the heavy hemlocks"?
V

M

H

N
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Intimate friendship

Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction

Curious observation
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?
A bomb

A feather

Tears

Blood
6 Who does the speaker address in the poem's opening lines?
The doe

The sky

The snow

Herself
7 When was this poem published?
1945

1918

1933

1928
8 What is a buck?
A baby deer

A male deer

A female deer

A deer without antlers
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go

How strange a thing is death
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
Second April

The Buck in the Snow

Renascance

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The snow

The hemlocks

The wall

The apple trees
12 What is the poem's form?
Haiku

Sonnet

Ode

It does not follow a traditional poetic form
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AAAAA A BACDAA

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA B CCCCC
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A firm, opinionated tone

A ghostly, mournful mood

A quizzical tone
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?
A heavy lock used in barns

A poisonous plant

A type of deer

A conifer tree
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?
By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines

By using the word "scalding"

By juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using assonance
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?
Nature

Death

Human/Animal interactions

Racism
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
The winter cold

Nature's indifference

The effects of climate change

The coming of death
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
War

Ancestry

Life

Guilt
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

An octave and a sestet

Two quintets and a couplet

Two quintains and two couplets
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The abundance of summer

The world of human society

The speaker's creativity

Nature's power over humanity
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By using an exclamation point

By making it unclear whether he is alive

By altering the rhyme scheme

By placing it in a separate line
23 Alliterative S sounds in the phrase "I saw them. I saw them suddenly go" communicate which of the following?
The rushing of water outside

The speaker's secrecy

A sense of speed and movement

The deers' inability to speak clearly
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
Death

The buck

The speaker

The doe
25 Which of the following does NOT describe the poem's tone?
Philosophical

Reflective

Furious

Contemplative

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The Buck in the Snow study guide contains a biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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