The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Lemonade

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
Somalia

Kenya

America

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

Sexual abuse

Love

Memory
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 calls God through the window but receives no answer

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?
Backwards

The House

River of Milk

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

Lemonade

warsan versus melancholy

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

Los Angeles

Nairobi

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Diode

Ebony
9 Shire is often called a voice for...
Pacifism

Diaspora

Radicalism

Christianity
10 From where does "The House" get its title?
From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's father said
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?
Letters

Bullet points

Roman numerals

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

Afrikaans

Xhosa

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

The house

The jam jar

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

Castration

A birth

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

A teacher

A true love

A social worker
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The narrator's mother's warnings

The bathtub

Johnny's bottle of bleach

The house as a feminine body
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
Queerness and gender identification

The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Diaspora and displacement
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 Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

The Museum of Modern Art

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer
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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