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

Extreme Girlhood

Her Blue Body
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

America

Somalia

Kenya

England
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 calls God through the window but receives no answer

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

He breaks into the basement of dreams

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?

River of Milk

The House

Backwards

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

warsan versus melancholy

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

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

Los Angeles

Nairobi

London

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

Ebony

SPOOK

Honeysuckle

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

Pacifism

Diaspora

Christianity

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

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker's father said

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

Roman numerals

Letters

Bullet points

Numbers
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 house

The apple

The jam jar

The kitchen of lust
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...

Castration

A murder

A birth

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

A true love

A social worker

A police officer

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

The narrator's mother's warnings

The house as a feminine body

Johnny's bottle of bleach

The bathtub
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?

Queerness and gender identification

Diaspora and displacement

The trappings of ambition

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

It is a way of making other people laugh

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?

The Museum of Modern Art

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

Beyoncé's Lemonade
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?

1997

1988

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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