The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?

The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is an aging hunter

The speaker is a baby deer

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 disease

From hunters

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

H

M

N

V
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?

Tentative interaction

Intimate friendship

Violent pursuit

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

A feather

Tears

A bomb

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

The sky

The doe

Herself

The snow
7 When was this poem published?

1945

1918

1933

1928
8 What is a buck?

A baby deer

A deer without antlers

A female deer

A male deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?

letting fall a feather of snow

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

I saw them suddenly go

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

Renascance

The Buck in the Snow

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

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

The hemlocks

The snow

The wall

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

Haiku

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Ode

Sonnet
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABABAB CDCDCD

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA B CCCCC

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

A firm, opinionated tone

A quizzical tone

A ghostly, mournful mood

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?

A conifer tree

A poisonous plant

A type of deer

A heavy lock used in barns
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?

By using the word "scalding"

By using assonance

By juxtaposing their red and white colors

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

Human/Animal interactions

Death

Racism

Nature
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?

The winter cold

The coming of death

The effects of climate change

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

Life

Guilt

War

Ancestry
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

Two quintains and two couplets

Two quintets and a couplet

An octave and a sestet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?

Nature's power over humanity

The world of human society

The speaker's creativity

The abundance of summer
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?

By making it unclear whether he is alive

By altering the rhyme scheme

By placing it in a separate line

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 deers' inability to speak clearly

The speaker's secrecy

A sense of speed and movement

The rushing of water outside
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?

The doe

Death

The buck

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

Contemplative

Philosophical

Furious

Reflective

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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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