The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

1 What was the name of Warsan Shire's first poetry collection?

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Her Blue Body

Extreme Girlhood

Lemonade
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

Kenya

America

England

Somalia
3 Which of these themes is "The House" NOT about?

Sexual abuse

Migration

Memory

Love
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?

He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He calls God through the window but receives no answer

He breaks into the basement of dreams
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?

River of Milk

Backwards

The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?

Lemonade

The House

Her Blue Body

warsan versus melancholy
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...

London

Nairobi

Los Angeles

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

Ebony

Diode

Honeysuckle

SPOOK
9 Shire is often called a voice for...

Diaspora

Christianity

Pacifism

Radicalism
10 From where does "The House" get its title?

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?

Bullet points

Letters

Numbers

Roman numerals
12 The sentence "Nin soo joog laga waayo, soo jiifso aa laga helaa" is in what language?

Somali

Zulu

Xhosa

Afrikaans
13 What is an example of a motif in "The House"?

The jam jar

The kitchen of lust

The house

The apple
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...

Castration

A murder

A sex change

A birth
15 Near the end of the poem the speaker is questioned by whom...

A teacher

A police officer

A true love

A social worker
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?

The house as a feminine body

The narrator's mother's warnings

The bathtub

Johnny's bottle of bleach
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?

The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Diaspora and displacement

Queerness and gender identification
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It is a way of making other people laugh
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

The Museum of Modern Art

Beyoncé's Lemonade

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?

1988

1997

1963

1984

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Study Guide for The House (poem)

The House (poem) study guide contains a biography of Warsan Shire, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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