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 an aging hunter

The speaker is unidentified

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

From disease

From the cold

The cause of the death is never stated

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

H

N

M

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

Intimate friendship

Curious observation

Tentative interaction

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

A bomb

Tears

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?

1945

1933

1928

1918
8 What is a buck?

A male deer

A baby deer

A deer without antlers

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

How strange a thing is death

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

letting fall a feather of snow

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

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

The Buck in the Snow

Second April

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

The hemlocks

The snow

The apple trees

The wall
12 What is the poem's form?

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Ode

Sonnet

Haiku
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA B CCCCC

ABABAB CDCDCD

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

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A ghostly, mournful mood
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?

A heavy lock used in barns

A poisonous plant

A type of deer

A conifer tree
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 juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using assonance
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?

Racism

Death

Human/Animal interactions

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

The winter cold

The effects of climate change

Nature's indifference

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

War

Guilt

Ancestry

Life
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?

Two quintets and a couplet

Two quintains and two couplets

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

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

The world of human society

Nature's power over humanity

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 placing it in a separate line

By using an exclamation point

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 speaker's secrecy

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The rushing of water outside

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

Death

The speaker

The buck

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

Contemplative

Furious

Philosophical

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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