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

Extreme Girlhood

Her Blue Body

Lemonade
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
Kenya

Somalia

America

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

Sexual abuse

Memory

Migration
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?
He breaks into the basement of dreams

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement

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

Backwards

River of Milk

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

The House

Her Blue Body

warsan versus melancholy
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...
Los Angeles

Mogadishu

London

Nairobi
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony

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

Pacifism

Christianity

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

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's father 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 kitchen of lust

The apple

The house

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

A sex change

A murder

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

A true love

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?
Diaspora and displacement

The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Queerness and gender identification
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
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

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness
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?
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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