The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Lemonade

Her Blue Body
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
England

America

Somalia

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

Memory

Sexual abuse

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 breaks into the basement of dreams

He calls God through the window but receives no answer
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
For Women Who are Difficult to Love

River of Milk

Backwards

The House
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...
Mogadishu

Los Angeles

Nairobi

London
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Diode

Ebony

Honeysuckle

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

Christianity

Pacifism

Diaspora
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's first love said

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

Numbers

Letters

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

Afrikaans

Somali

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

The apple

The kitchen of lust

The house
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...
A sex change

A murder

Castration

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

A police officer

A social worker

A true love
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
Johnny's bottle of bleach

The bathtub

The narrator's mother's warnings

The house as a feminine body
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
The American dream

Diaspora and displacement

The trappings of ambition

Queerness and gender identification
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

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?
Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Museum of Modern Art

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1984

1997

1963

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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