The Mountain (Elizabeth Bishop poem) Quizzes

The Mountain (Elizabeth Bishop poem) Quiz

1 Which of the following is an instance of metaphor?

"I start for a second"

The poem contains no metaphors

"bird-calls / dribble"

"Tell me how old I am"
2 How many stanzas are in this poem?

4

8

6

9
3 The phrase "fly their kites" contains which of the following?

Alliteration

Sibilance

Assonance

Verbal irony
4 What does "staggeringly" mean in this context?

With emphatic movements

In a stumbling manner

Unbelievably

Drunkenly
5 What types of stanzas make up this poem?

Tercets

Sestets

Quatrains

Couplets
6 What does "sift" most closely mean here?

Sicken

Fall

Dirty

Split
7 What does "blench" mean?

Flinch

Crush

Fall

Belch
8 Which of the following is a refrain?

"Tell me how old I am."

"Nobody tells me anything."

"I am growing deaf."

"The claws are lost somewhere."
9 Which best describes the extended metaphor of the mountain enviroment?

It is a paradisal space representing heaven

It is a quiet, pastoral place representing the paired tranquility and boredom of age

It is a harsh, strange landscape representing old age

It is a dangerous landscape representing illness and death
10 The phrase "Nobody tells me anything" is an instance of which of the following?

Understatement

Personification

Hyperbole

Simile
11 Which poetic form does "The Mountain" resemble?

The sonnet

The villanelle

The haiku

The sestina
12 In what year was "The Mountain" first published?

1884

1996

1928

1952
13 The phrase "like cotton in my ears" is an instance of which of the following?

Personification

Metonymy

Simile

Metaphor
14 What does "impenetrable" mean?

Intimidatingly beautiful

Impossible to get through

Impossible to contain

Incapable of thought
15 Where does the speaker live?

Brazil

Massachusetts

This isn't stated in the poem

London
16 What does "clambering" mean?

Cooking

Climbing

Struggling

Confusing
17 Which of the following is NOT an example of personification?

"the valleys stuff/impenetrable mists"

"An open book confronts me"

"They say it is my fault"

"stars go fly their kites."
18 Who is the poem's speaker?

An older man looking back on his life

A young man addressing his beloved

An unidentified elderly person

A young woman imagining her old age
19 Which best describes the poem's major conflict?

It is the speaker's argument with her daughter about living together

It is the speaker's struggle to maintain dignity and comfort in old age

It is the speaker's attempt to reach the top of the mountain

It is the speaker's discussion with her past self as she grows old
20 In which magazine did this poem first appear?

Time

The Paris Review

The New Yorker

Poetry
21 What does "demarcation" mean?

Disagreement

Tarnish

Division

Vacation
22 The phrase "deepest demarcation" is an instance of which of the following?

Alliteration

End rhyme

Assonance

Onomatopoeia
23 Which of the following best describes this poem's tone?

Resigned

Anxious

Jolly

Serene
24 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABADACAD

ABABAB CDCDCD EF

It has no regular rhyme scheme

AABB CCDD
25 What is the poem's meter?

Spondaic monometer

Iambic pentameter

Iambic hexameter

Though the poem has rhythmic patterns, it has no regular meter

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