The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Extreme Girlhood

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Lemonade
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
Somalia

America

Kenya

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

Migration

Memory

Sexual abuse
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?
He breaks into the basement of dreams

He calls God through the window but receives no answer

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
The House

Backwards

River of Milk

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

The House

warsan versus melancholy

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

Los Angeles

Nairobi

London
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Diode

SPOOK

Ebony

Honeysuckle
9 Shire is often called a voice for...
Christianity

Radicalism

Diaspora

Pacifism
10 From where does "The House" get its title?
From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker thought of

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

Bullet points

Letters

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

Xhosa

Zulu

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

The apple

The house

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

A birth

Castration

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"?
Johnny's bottle of bleach

The house as a feminine body

The bathtub

The narrator's mother's warnings
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
Diaspora and displacement

The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Queerness and gender identification
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

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?
1997

1963

1984

1988

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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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