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?

Kenya

England

America

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

Migration

Sexual abuse

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?

Backwards

The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

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

warsan versus melancholy

Lemonade

The House

Her Blue Body
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...

Los Angeles

Nairobi

Mogadishu

London
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony

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

Christianity

Pacifism

Diaspora

Radicalism
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?

Bullet points

Roman numerals

Numbers

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

Afrikaans

Zulu

Xhosa

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

The jam jar

The house

The apple

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

A sex change

A birth

Castration

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

A teacher

A true love

A social worker

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

Johnny's bottle of bleach

The house as a feminine body

The narrator's mother's warnings

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

The American dream

Queerness and gender identification

Diaspora and displacement

The trappings of ambition
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?

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

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

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Museum of Modern Art
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?

1984

1988

1963

1997

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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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