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 a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified
2 How does the buck die?
From the cold

From disease

From hunters

The cause of the death is never stated
3 Which sound creates alliteration in the phrase "Under the heavy hemlocks"?
N

M

H

V
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

Blood

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

The doe

Herself

The sky
7 When was this poem published?
1945

1918

1928

1933
8 What is a buck?
A female deer

A male deer

A deer without antlers

A baby deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
I saw them suddenly go

How strange a thing is death

letting fall a feather of snow

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
Renascance

Second April

The Buck in the Snow

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The hemlocks

The apple trees

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?
ABBA BBCC ABCBA

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA B CCCCC

AAAAA A BACDAA
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 heavy lock used in barns

A conifer tree

A type of deer

A poisonous plant
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?
By juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using the word "scalding"

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

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 coming of death

Nature's indifference

The winter cold

The effects of climate change
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
Ancestry

War

Guilt

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

Two quintains and two couplets

An octave and a sestet

Two quintets and a couplet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The world of human society

The abundance of summer

The speaker's creativity

Nature's power over humanity
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By altering the rhyme scheme

By placing it in a separate line

By making it unclear whether he is alive

By using an exclamation point
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 rushing of water outside

A sense of speed and movement

The deers' inability to speak clearly
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
The speaker

The buck

Death

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

Reflective

Furious

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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