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 unidentified

The speaker is an aging hunter

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

The cause of the death is never stated

From the cold

From disease

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

V

H

N

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

Curious observation

Intimate friendship

Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?

Tears

A feather

Blood

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

Herself

The doe

The snow

The sky
7 When was this poem published?

1945

1928

1933

1918
8 What is a buck?

A female deer

A deer without antlers

A male deer

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

How strange a thing is death

letting fall a feather of snow

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

I saw them suddenly go
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?

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Sonnet

Ode

Haiku
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA A BACDAA

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

A firm, opinionated tone

A ghostly, mournful mood

A quizzical tone

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

A type of deer

A conifer tree

A poisonous plant

A heavy lock used in barns
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 using assonance

By juxtaposing their red and white colors
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?

The effects of climate change

The winter cold

Nature's indifference

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

Ancestry

War

Guilt

Life
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?

The world of human society

Nature's power over humanity

The abundance of summer

The speaker's creativity
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?

By using an exclamation point

By placing it in a separate line

By making it unclear whether he is alive

By altering the rhyme scheme
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

The rushing of water outside

A sense of speed and movement
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?

Death

The speaker

The doe

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

Philosophical

Contemplative

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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