The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

Kenya

Somalia

England

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

Sexual abuse

Memory

Migration

Love
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

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
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?

The House

Lemonade

warsan versus melancholy

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

Nairobi

Los Angeles

London

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony

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

Pacifism

Radicalism

Christianity

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

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker's mother said

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

Roman numerals

Bullet points

Numbers

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

Zulu

Somali

Afrikaans

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

The kitchen of lust

The house

The apple

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

Castration

A murder

A sex change

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

A police officer

A social worker

A teacher

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?

Diaspora and displacement

Queerness and gender identification

The American dream

The trappings of ambition
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 adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others
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?

1988

1963

1984

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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