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"

"Tell me how old I am"

The poem contains no metaphors

"bird-calls / dribble"
2 How many stanzas are in this poem?

6

8

4

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

Sibilance

Alliteration

Verbal irony

Assonance
4 What does "staggeringly" mean in this context?

In a stumbling manner

With emphatic movements

Unbelievably

Drunkenly
5 What types of stanzas make up this poem?

Quatrains

Couplets

Tercets

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

Fall

Dirty

Split

Sicken
7 What does "blench" mean?

Belch

Flinch

Fall

Crush
8 Which of the following is a refrain?

"I am growing deaf."

"The claws are lost somewhere."

"Tell me how old I am."

"Nobody tells me anything."
9 Which best describes the extended metaphor of the mountain enviroment?

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

It is a dangerous landscape representing illness and death

It is a paradisal space representing heaven

It is a harsh, strange landscape representing old age
10 The phrase "Nobody tells me anything" is an instance of which of the following?

Hyperbole

Simile

Understatement

Personification
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?

1996

1928

1952

1884
13 The phrase "like cotton in my ears" is an instance of which of the following?

Personification

Simile

Metaphor

Metonymy
14 What does "impenetrable" mean?

Intimidatingly beautiful

Impossible to get through

Impossible to contain

Incapable of thought
15 Where does the speaker live?

This isn't stated in the poem

Brazil

London

Massachusetts
16 What does "clambering" mean?

Climbing

Confusing

Cooking

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

"stars go fly their kites."

"An open book confronts me"

"They say it is my fault"

"the valleys stuff/impenetrable mists"
18 Who is the poem's speaker?

A young man addressing his beloved

An unidentified elderly person

A young woman imagining her old age

An older man looking back on his life
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 discussion with her past self as she grows old

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
20 In which magazine did this poem first appear?

Time

The New Yorker

Poetry

The Paris Review
21 What does "demarcation" mean?

Tarnish

Vacation

Division

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

End rhyme

Onomatopoeia

Assonance

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

Serene

Anxious

Jolly

Resigned
24 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABADACAD

ABABAB CDCDCD EF

AABB CCDD
25 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic hexameter

Spondaic monometer

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

Iambic pentameter

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