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

Her Blue Body

Lemonade

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

America

England

Somalia

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

Sexual abuse

Migration

Love

Memory
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 breaks into the basement of dreams

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

River of Milk

The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

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

The House

Her Blue Body

warsan versus melancholy

Lemonade
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...

Mogadishu

London

Los Angeles

Nairobi
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

Honeysuckle

Ebony

SPOOK

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

Christianity

Radicalism

Pacifism

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

From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker's mother said

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

Roman numerals

Letters

Bullet points

Numbers
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 house

The apple

The kitchen of lust
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 true love

A teacher

A police officer

A social worker
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?

Queerness and gender identification

The trappings of ambition

Diaspora and displacement

The American dream
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?

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

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?

The Museum of Modern Art

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals
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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