Afternoon With Irish Cows Quizzes

1 How many cows are in the poem?

A few dozen

About one hundred

One

It is not specified
2 What color is the speaker's front door?

Gray

Green

Blue

Black
3 Where is the poem set?

America

Ireland

New York

Scotland
4 Which of the following is NOT an action the cows are depicted as doing in the poem?

Giving milk

Eating

Mooing

Resting
5 In which Billy Collins' collection was "Afternoon With Irish Cows" first published in?

Nine Horses

The Trouble with Poetry

Horoscopes from the Dead

Picnic, Lightning
6 What does the speaker use his knife for?

Cooking dinner

Cutting an apple

Cutting the gate latch to allow the cows to escape

Killing a wolf who attempts to attack a calf
7 What separates the speaker from the cows?

An inlet and a mountain

A road and a stone wall

A bike path and a brick wall

Limestone hills
8 What does “laboring” best mean in the context of Line 25?

working at an unskilled manual occupation

working on a specific task with a high level of detail

giving birth

exerting the power of movement, especially with effort
9 “Afternoon with Irish Cows” can most strongly be considered an example of which genre?

Prose poetry

Elegy

Verse epistle

Pastoral poetry
10 Which of the following is NOT a word used to describe the noisy cow?

Solemn

Anchored

Shocking

Wild
11 Collins compares the cows to ____.

Birds

Grass

Foxes

Wolves
12 What is the speaker doing when he is interrupted by the noisy cow?

Washing the dishes and reading a book

Cutting an apple with a knife and reading the newspaper

Cleaning the house and listening to music

Staring out the window and writing poetry
13 What metaphor does Collins use to describe the cows as they are lying down?

Birds

Black-and-white movies

Maps

Knives
14 What does the speaker think when he first hears the cow’s loud noise?

That the cow is announcing the "ancient apologia of its kind"

That the cows are leaving the field

That the cows are sick

That the cow is in pain, such as being torched or stabbed
15 Which of the following is NOT an adjective used to describe the group of cows?

Mysterious

Angry

Dumbfounded

Patient
16 What perspective is the poem in?

Third-person

First-person

First-person plural

Second-person
17 Which of the following is NOT a major theme of the poem?

Self-expression and identity

The horrors of war

Perception and observation

Nature
18 Which is the rhyme structure of the poem?

Free verse

ABCB ABCB

ABCD ABCD

ABDD ACDD
19 How long is each stanza?

7 lines

6 lines

4 lines

5 lines
20 Which of the following contains an example of alliteration?

ancient apologia of her kind (Line 31)

rising, full-bodied cry (Line 26)

they appear in the long quiet of the afternoon (Line 14)

facing in all directions, waiting for rain (Line 12)
21 As used in Line 30, which of the following is the best definition of "unadulterated?"

pure, complete, and not changed by any other or additional elements

pure and untainted by any chemicals or defects

a formal defense of one's position

longstanding; traditional
22 Which of the following best describes the author of the poem?

An Irish folk artist and poet

A nineteenth-century Irish Romantic poet

A former U.S. poet laureate

A British poet
23 Which of the following is an example of personification?

and again the field would be full of their munching / or they would be lying down (Lines 9-10)

though I would sometimes pass a window / and look out to see the field suddenly empty (Lines 5-6)

Then I knew that she was only announcing / the large, unadulterated cowness of herself (Lines 29-30)

to see which one of them was being torched / or pierced through the side with a long spear. (Lines 20-21)
24 What do the cows appear to be waiting for?

Rain

To be torched

The ancient apologia

Food
25 Which of the following is NOT an element of the surroundings as described in the poem?

Fields

Bay

Hills

Desert

Afternoon With Irish Cows Quiz

Essays for Afternoon With Irish Cows