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?
From hunters

The cause of the death is never stated

From the cold

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

M

H

V
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?
A bomb

Blood

Tears

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

The sky

Herself

The doe
7 When was this poem published?
1928

1945

1918

1933
8 What is a buck?
A deer without antlers

A baby deer

A male deer

A female deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go

How strange a thing is death

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

Renascance

The Buck in the Snow

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

The apple trees

The hemlocks

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

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Sonnet

Ode
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA B CCCCC

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA A BACDAA
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
A quizzical tone

A firm, opinionated tone

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A ghostly, mournful mood
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?
A conifer tree

A poisonous plant

A heavy lock used in barns

A type of deer
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?
Racism

Nature

Death

Human/Animal interactions
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
Nature's indifference

The coming of death

The effects of climate change

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

Guilt

War

Ancestry
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
Two quintets and a couplet

Two quintains and two couplets

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

An octave and a sestet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The abundance of summer

The speaker's creativity

The world of human society

Nature's power over humanity
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 making it unclear whether he is alive

By using an exclamation point
23 Alliterative S sounds in the phrase "I saw them. I saw them suddenly go" communicate which of the following?
The speaker's secrecy

The rushing of water outside

A sense of speed and movement

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

Death

The buck

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

Contemplative

Reflective

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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