The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is an aging hunter

The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet
2 How does the buck die?
The cause of the death is never stated

From hunters

From disease

From the cold
3 Which sound creates alliteration in the phrase "Under the heavy hemlocks"?
N

M

V

H
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Curious observation

Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction

Intimate friendship
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?
Blood

Tears

A bomb

A feather
6 Who does the speaker address in the poem's opening lines?
The sky

The snow

Herself

The doe
7 When was this poem published?
1933

1918

1928

1945
8 What is a buck?
A female deer

A male deer

A baby deer

A deer without antlers
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
How strange a thing is death

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
The Buck in the Snow

Second April

Renascance

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

The hemlocks

The wall

The snow
12 What is the poem's form?
Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Haiku

Ode
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AAAAA B CCCCC

ABABAB CDCDCD

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

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

A quizzical tone

A ghostly, mournful mood

A firm, opinionated 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 juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using assonance

By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines

By using the word "scalding"
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?
Human/Animal interactions

Racism

Nature

Death
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
The coming of death

The effects of climate change

The winter cold

Nature's indifference
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
War

Life

Ancestry

Guilt
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
Two quintains and two couplets

Two quintets and a couplet

An octave and a sestet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
Nature's power over humanity

The speaker's creativity

The abundance of summer

The world of human society
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By altering the rhyme scheme

By using an exclamation point

By placing it in a separate line

By making it unclear whether he is alive
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

A sense of speed and movement

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The speaker's secrecy
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
The doe

Death

The speaker

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

Reflective

Contemplative

Furious

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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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