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 unidentified

The speaker is a baby deer
2 How does the buck die?
From the cold

From disease

The cause of the death is never stated

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

M

V

N
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction

Curious observation

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

Tears

A feather

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

The snow

Herself

The sky
7 When was this poem published?
1928

1945

1918

1933
8 What is a buck?
A male deer

A deer without antlers

A baby deer

A female deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
How strange a thing is death

I saw them suddenly go

letting fall a feather of snow

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
Renascance

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

The Buck in the Snow

Second April
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The apple trees

The snow

The wall

The hemlocks
12 What is the poem's form?
Ode

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Sonnet

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

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA A BACDAA

ABABAB CDCDCD
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
A firm, opinionated tone

A ghostly, mournful mood

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A quizzical tone
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?
A type of deer

A conifer tree

A heavy lock used in barns

A poisonous plant
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?
By using the word "scalding"

By juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using assonance

By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?
Death

Nature

Human/Animal interactions

Racism
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
Nature's indifference

The effects of climate change

The coming of death

The winter cold
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
Life

War

Ancestry

Guilt
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
An octave and a sestet

Two quintains and two couplets

Two quintets and a couplet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The abundance of summer

Nature's power over humanity

The speaker's creativity

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

By placing it in a separate line

By using an exclamation point

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 speaker's secrecy

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

The speaker

Death

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

Philosophical

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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