The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is an aging hunter

The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet

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"?
H

V

N

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

Tentative interaction

Intimate friendship

Violent pursuit
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?
Tears

A bomb

A feather

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

The snow

The sky

Herself
7 When was this poem published?
1918

1945

1933

1928
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?
letting fall a feather of snow

How strange a thing is death

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

I saw them suddenly go
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
Second April

The Buck in the Snow

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

Renascance
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The hemlocks

The wall

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?
ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA A BACDAA

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA B CCCCC
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 firm, opinionated tone

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 assonance

By using the word "scalding"

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?
Death

Human/Animal interactions

Racism

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

Nature's indifference

The effects of climate change

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

Life

War

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

Two quintains and two couplets

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

Two quintets and a couplet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The abundance of summer

The world of human society

Nature's power over humanity

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

By making it unclear whether he is alive

By using an exclamation point

By placing it in a separate line
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

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The speaker's secrecy

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

The speaker

Death

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

Reflective

Philosophical

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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