To My Nine-Year-Old Self Quizzes

To My Nine-Year-Old Self Quiz

1 Who is the speaker in the poem?
A nine-year-old addressing her older self

An adult woman addressing the memory of her younger self

An adult woman talking to a friend

An adult woman talking to her nine-year-old daughter
2 What perspective does the poem use?
second-person

first-person

third-person omniscient

both first- and second-person
3 Describe the construction of the poem's stanzas.
Seven stanzas of varying length

Six quintains

Six tercets

Six stanzas of varying length
4 What collection was this poem originally published in?
Out of the Blue, published in 2001

The Malarkey, published in 2012

Glad of These Times, published in 2006

Glad of These Times, published in 2007
5 Which best describes the significance of the change in number of lines per stanza?
All the stanzas have the same amount of lines. The poem is composed of tercets.

All the stanzas have the same amount of lines. The poem is composed of quatrains.

The number of lines decrease as the adult speaker reminisces about the past and attempts to connect with her younger self. When she realizes she cannot change anything, the number of lines per stanza increase.

The number of lines increase as the adult speaker reminisces about the past and attempts to connect with her younger self. When she realizes she cannot change anything, the number of lines per stanza decrease.
6 Which best describes why the speaker can't be friends with her nine-year-old self?
The girl dislikes adults.

The speaker hates children, particularly the child she was.

The girl only exists in the speaker's memory.

They have nothing in common beyond a few shared years.
7 Which of the following is a simile?
"You must forgive me" (Line 1)

"time to hide down scared lanes / from men in cars after girl-children" (Lines 23-24)

“That dream we had, no doubt it's as fresh in your mind / as the white paper to write it on” (Lines 12-13)

“careful of a bad back or a bruised foot” (Line 7)
8 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Melancholy, Ironic, and Bitter

Nostalgic, Hypercritical, and Abrasive

Nostalgic, Reflective, and Conversational

Accepting, Dreamy, and Loving
9 What quality most differentiates the nine-year-old from her future self?
Fearlessness

Her ability to focus on things

Abrasiveness

Her bookishness
10 What does "perplexed" mean?
amazed, astonished

surprised

flabbergasted

baffled, uncertain
11 What is a vole?
an apparatus used in gymnastics

a small, typically burrowing, mouse-like rodent

a musical instrument

a green-brown reptile
12 What is symbolic about cesspits?
It is a place where society dumps waste

Sewage can damage the environment

Sewage exposure is harmful to human health

It is a place where snakes nest
13 Which of the following is an example of metonymy?
tuppence

scared lanes

spoiled

girl-children
14 Which of the following is a transferred epithet?
ice-lolly factory

scared lanes

leap from a height

girl-children
15 What is the climax of the poem?
When the speaker's younger self hides down scared lanes from men in cars after girl-children

When the speaker states that she cannot be friends with her nine-year-old self

When the child builds a den beside a cesspit

When the speaker departs from her nine-year-old self as the child picks a scab and tastes it
16 What do scars symbolize to the speaker?
Pride

Unhealed wounds

Resilience

Lessons learned from past physical mistakes
17 What does summer symbolize?
a time of struggle because of drought

a time of lushness, freedom, and prime of life

a time of hope, renewal, and rebirth

a period of intense cold, as the poem takes place in the Southern Hemisphere
18 What is the nine-year-old girl's favorite activity?
Picking rosehips

Balancing on her hands

Leaping from a height

Writing
19 What does leaping represent in the poem?
Taking risks. Childhood naivety.

Fearing the unknown. Childhood naivety.

The ability to have fun and enjoy life.

Clumsiness. Childhood wonder.
20 What does the speaker mean when she says, "I have spoiled this body we once shared?"
The speaker ate too many sherbet lemons.

Age has inevitably changed the speaker's body.

The speaker treated herself too nicely and now she it spoiled.

The speaker lost her fearlessness as she aged. She now has scars and moves carefully.
21 Which line has a more defined rhythm?
"Time to pick rosehips for tuppence a pound" (Line 22)

"I have spoiled this body we once shared" (Line 6)

"I'd like to say we could be friends" (Line 19)

"created an ice-lolly factory, a wasp trap" (Line 17)
22 What is significant about the final image of the poem?
The speaker's younger self peels a scab and eats it. This contrasts the scars the speaker has as an adult.

The speaker's younger self peels a scab and eats it. This contributes to her spoiling her body as an adult

The speaker's younger self peels a scab and eats it. She cries and the speaker comforts her.

The speaker's younger self peels a scab and eats it. This contributes to the scars she will later have.
23 How does the final image fit in the grand scheme of Dunmore's writing?
Dunmore often writes sensuous details about eating.

Dunmore's work is environmentally concerned.

Dunmore herself is the speaker addressing her nine-year-old self.

Dunmore often writes about children eating their scabs.
24 Why did the speaker lose her fearlessness?
The speaker broke her leg falling from a height.

It is not specified. It could be the maturity that comes with age, or perhaps something traumatic occurred.

The speaker did not lose her fearlessness. She is still agile and carefree as an adult.

The speaker had a traumatic encounter with a man.
25 How do clouds appear in the poem?
The speaker does not want to "cloud" her younger self's summer morning.

The speaker is worried clouds will appear in her younger self's summer morning.

Clouds do not appear in the poem.

It is often cloudy in Britain, where the poem takes place.

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To My Nine-Year-Old Self study guide contains a biography of Helen Dunmore, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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