The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Her Blue Body

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Lemonade
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
England

Somalia

Kenya

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

Migration

Sexual abuse

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

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

River of Milk

The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love
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...
Nairobi

London

Mogadishu

Los Angeles
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Ebony

Honeysuckle

SPOOK

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

Christianity

Radicalism

Pacifism
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?
Bullet points

Roman numerals

Letters

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 house

The jam jar

The kitchen of lust

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

A murder

A birth

Castration
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"?
The narrator's mother's warnings

The bathtub

The house as a feminine body

Johnny's bottle of bleach
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Queerness and gender identification

Diaspora and displacement
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
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

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

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

The Museum of Modern Art
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1997

1988

1963

1984

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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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