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 a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is an aging hunter
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"?
V

H

N

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

Intimate friendship

Tentative interaction

Violent pursuit
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 sky

The snow

Herself

The doe
7 When was this poem published?
1933

1918

1945

1928
8 What is a buck?
A female deer

A baby deer

A deer without antlers

A male 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?
The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

Renascance

Second April

The Buck in the Snow
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The wall

The hemlocks

The apple trees

The snow
12 What is the poem's form?
It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Ode

Haiku

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

AAAAA A BACDAA

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

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

A ghostly, mournful mood

A quizzical tone

A firm, opinionated tone
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?
A poisonous plant

A heavy lock used in barns

A conifer tree

A type of deer
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 using the word "scalding"

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

Racism

Death

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

Nature's indifference

The effects of climate change

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

Life

War

Ancestry
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

An octave and a sestet

Two quintets and a couplet

Two quintains and two couplets
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The abundance of summer

Nature's power over humanity

The world of human society

The speaker's creativity
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By placing it in a separate line

By altering the rhyme scheme

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 deers' inability to speak clearly

The rushing of water outside

A sense of speed and movement

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

The speaker

The buck

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

Furious

Reflective

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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