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

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
America

England

Kenya

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

Migration

Sexual abuse

Memory
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?
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?
Lemonade

The House

Her Blue Body

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

Los Angeles

Mogadishu

Nairobi
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
SPOOK

Ebony

Honeysuckle

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

Radicalism

Diaspora

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

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker thought of
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?
Letters

Roman numerals

Numbers

Bullet points
12 The sentence "Nin soo joog laga waayo, soo jiifso aa laga helaa" is in what language?
Afrikaans

Somali

Xhosa

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

The house

The kitchen of lust

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

A murder

A sex change

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"?
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 trappings of ambition

Diaspora and displacement

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 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
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?
Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

The Museum of Modern Art

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

Beyoncé's Lemonade
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1963

1984

1988

1997

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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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