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

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

America

Kenya

Somalia

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

Sexual abuse

Memory

Migration

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

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

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

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

The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

Backwards
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

warsan versus melancholy

The House
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...

Nairobi

Mogadishu

Los Angeles

London
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony

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

Christianity

Pacifism

Radicalism

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

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker thought of
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?

Letters

Bullet points

Numbers

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

Afrikaans

Zulu

Somali

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

The apple

The house

The kitchen of lust

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

A birth

A sex change

Castration

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

A true love

A police officer

A teacher

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

The narrator's mother's warnings

The bathtub

The house as a feminine body

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

Diaspora and displacement

Queerness and gender identification

The trappings of ambition

The American dream
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

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

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

The Museum of Modern Art

Beyoncé's Lemonade
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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