The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

Extreme Girlhood

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

Kenya

England

America

Somalia
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 breaks into the basement of dreams

He calls God through the window but receives no answer

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

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

Backwards

The House

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

Her Blue Body

The House

Lemonade

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

London

Mogadishu

Nairobi

Los Angeles
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

Honeysuckle

Diode

Ebony

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

Christianity

Pacifism

Radicalism

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

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's father said

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

Numbers

Letters

Bullet points

Roman numerals
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 apple

The jam jar

The kitchen of lust

The house
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 narrator's mother's warnings

The bathtub
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?

The American dream

The trappings of ambition

Diaspora and displacement

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 adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It is a way of making other people laugh
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

The Museum of Modern Art

Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?

1963

1988

1997

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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