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 a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified
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"?

M

N

V

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

Tentative interaction

Curious observation

Violent pursuit

Intimate friendship
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?

Blood

A bomb

Tears

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

The snow

Herself

The sky

The doe
7 When was this poem published?

1928

1933

1945

1918
8 What is a buck?

A deer without antlers

A female deer

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?

Renascance

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

Second April

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

The apple trees

The hemlocks

The snow

The wall
12 What is the poem's form?

Haiku

Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Ode
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA B CCCCC

AAAAA A BACDAA

ABBA BBCC ABCBA
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?

A ghostly, mournful mood

A firm, opinionated tone

A quizzical tone

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"
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 using assonance

By using the word "scalding"

By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines

By juxtaposing their red and white colors
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?

Human/Animal interactions

Nature

Death

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

The effects of climate change

Nature's indifference

The coming of death

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

Life

War

Guilt

Ancestry
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?

Two quintets and a couplet

An octave and a sestet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

Two quintains and two couplets
21 What does the orchard symbolize?

The abundance of summer

The speaker's creativity

Nature's power over humanity

The world of human society
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?

By placing it in a separate line

By using an exclamation point

By altering the rhyme scheme

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 rushing of water outside

The speaker's secrecy

The deers' inability to speak clearly

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

The speaker

Death

The doe

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

Furious

Contemplative

Reflective

Philosophical

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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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