The Émigrée Quizzes

The Émigrée Quiz

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

"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)

"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15)
2 Which of the following is NOT a motif or symbol used in the poem?
Paper

Sunlight

Shadows

A wolf
3 Which of the following does the speaker not have?
A passport

A piece of paper

A hollow doll

A paperweight
4 "There once was a ____... I left it as a ___."
country / hollow doll

country / child

city / child

city / November
5 Which of the following is NOT a major theme in the poem?
Memory

War

Language

Religion
6 In what year was "The Émigrée" published?
1987

2001

1976

1983
7 Which of the following is an example of caesura?
"I comb its hair and love its shining eyes" (Line 20)

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

"There once was a country... I left it as a child" (Line 1)

"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

Grey

White

Brown
9 Which of the following is NOT a metaphor in the poem?
"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)

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

"but my memory of it is sunlight-clear" (Line 2)

"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)
10 The poem contains ____
rhree stanzas, with the first two containing nine lines and the final stanza containing eight lines.

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

four stanzas of nine lines each.

rhree stanzas of eight lines each.
11 Which of the following is NOT used to describe the city?
Sunlight

A doll

A docile figure

White Streets
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?
An expatriate

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

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

A person on the move
14 Which of the following is NOT a simile used in the poem?
"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

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

"...docile as paper" (Line 19

"That child's vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)
15 What is the speaker's childhood vocabulary compared to?
Tyranny

A lie

A grape

A hollow doll
16 Which of the following is used to describe language?
December

Colorful molecules

A filled paperweight

A hollow paperweight
17 What word is used at the end of each stanza?
Sunlight

Girl

City

Country
18 Which month is referenced in the poem?
January

March

December

November
19 The opening line alludes to ___.
fairytales

nothing

World War 2

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

Iambic pentameter

Iambic tetrameter

Blank verse
21 What is the city "sick with" according to Line 7?
Corrupt politicians

Malaria

Tyrants

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

A waterfall

A fight with a loved one

Warfare (tanks)
23 Who or what accuses the speaker?
An unspecified "they"

The walls

The tyrants

The dolls
24 What is the speaker accused of?
Leaving

Supporting the wrong side

Absence and darkness

Tyranny and oppression
25 What does the speaker's shadow symbolize?
The personified city's cowardice

Evil

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

The speaker's love for her children

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