The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Extreme Girlhood

Lemonade
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
America

Kenya

England

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

Memory

Love

Sexual abuse
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?
He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement

He breaks into the basement of dreams

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He calls God through the window but receives no answer
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
The House

Backwards

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

River of Milk
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?
warsan versus melancholy

The House

Lemonade

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

Los Angeles

Nairobi

London
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Diode

SPOOK

Ebony

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

Diaspora

Pacifism

Christianity
10 From where does "The House" get its title?
From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker thought of

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

Letters

Roman numerals

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

Xhosa

Afrikaans

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

The kitchen of lust

The house

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

Castration

A sex change

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

A social worker

A police officer

A teacher
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The bathtub

The narrator's mother's warnings

Johnny's bottle of bleach

The house as a feminine body
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
Queerness and gender identification

The American dream

The trappings of ambition

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 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?
1963

1997

1984

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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