The Émigrée Quizzes

The Émigrée Quiz

1 Which of the following is an example of personification?
"My city takes me dancing..." (Line 21)

"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15)

"The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes" (Line 9)

"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar" (Lines 12-13)
2 Which of the following is NOT a motif or symbol used in the poem?
A wolf

Shadows

Sunlight

Paper
3 Which of the following does the speaker not have?
A paperweight

A passport

A hollow doll

A piece of paper
4 "There once was a ____... I left it as a ___."
country / child

city / November

city / child

country / hollow doll
5 Which of the following is NOT a major theme in the poem?
Language

War

Religion

Memory
6 In what year was "The Émigrée" published?
1976

1983

2001

1987
7 Which of the following is an example of caesura?
"There once was a country... I left it as a child" (Line 1)

"I comb its hair and love its shining eyes" (Line 20)

"They accuse me of being dark in their free city" (Line 23)

"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)
8 Which color is used to describe the streets of the city?
Earthy

White

Grey

Brown
9 Which of the following is NOT a metaphor in the poem?
"but my memory of it is sunlight-clear" (Line 2)

"my original view, the bright, filled paperweight" (Line 6)

"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)

"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)
10 The poem contains ____
rhree stanzas of eight lines each.

four stanzas of nine lines each.

Tthree stanzas, with the first two containing eight lines and the final one containing nine lines.

rhree stanzas, with the first two containing nine lines and the final stanza containing eight lines.
11 Which of the following is NOT used to describe the city?
A doll

Sunlight

White Streets

A docile figure
12 Which of the following best describes the speaker's tone when discussing the "city of walls?"
Docile

Confronting

Threatened

Calm
13 What is the definition of an émigrée?
A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

A person on the move

A person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons

An expatriate
14 Which of the following is NOT a simile used in the poem?
"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)

"That child's vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)

"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

"...docile as paper" (Line 19
15 What is the speaker's childhood vocabulary compared to?
A grape

A hollow doll

A lie

Tyranny
16 Which of the following is used to describe language?
A hollow paperweight

A filled paperweight

Colorful molecules

December
17 What word is used at the end of each stanza?
City

Sunlight

Girl

Country
18 Which month is referenced in the poem?
March

December

January

November
19 The opening line alludes to ___.
nothing

World War 2

fairytales

Europe
20 Which of the following best describes the poem's meter?
Free verse

Blank verse

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter
21 What is the city "sick with" according to Line 7?
Malaria

Corrupt politicians

Tyrants

War
22 What is the passage of time metaphorically compared to?
A waterfall

Warfare (tanks)

A soothing balm

A fight with a loved one
23 Who or what accuses the speaker?
The tyrants

An unspecified "they"

The dolls

The walls
24 What is the speaker accused of?
Supporting the wrong side

Absence and darkness

Tyranny and oppression

Leaving
25 What does the speaker's shadow symbolize?
The personified city's cowardice

Evil

The speaker's love for her children

Even her own darkness is a symbol of her sunlit impression of her country

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The Emigrée study guide contains a biography of Patricia Aakhus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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