Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

1 What birds are mentioned at the poem's beginning and end?
Sparrows

Swallows

Blue Jays

Starlings
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Comedic

Elegiac

Nostalgic

Enraged
3 What religious imagery appears in the poem?
A small church built from logs

Stained glass

A painted icon

A wooden cross
4 What does the speaker say about the soldiers' personalities?
They cling to their beliefs fiercely, even in the face of death

They verbally express hopeful camaraderie to one another

Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They are silent and unmoving
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?
In a field in the aftermath of a battle

In the middle of a gunfight

In a battlefield hospital

In a tactical meeting
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?
The soldiers' grim determination to win

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

The soldiers' faith in politicians

The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess
7 What is the poem's title referencing?
A whaling ship

The signing of the Declaration of Independence

A town in Massachusetts

A battle during the Civil War
8 What does the line "Fame or country least their care" describe?
Flying swallows

The signing of a treaty

Soldiers returning home

The newfound understanding between the dying soldiers
9 What is the poem's main thematic thread?
The history of a navy yard

A historical reckoning with slavery

The aftermath of war

Southern aristocratic values
10 Which of the following is NOT an image in the poem?
A church

Bayonets

April rain

Swallows
11 What is Shiloh's historical reputation?
A rallying cry for the Confederacy

A key victory for the Union

A Union surrender

A bitter stalement
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?
Robert E. Lee

Ulysses S. Grant

Anonymous soldiers

Battlefield medics
13 Which of the following is NOT a conflict in the poem?
The struggle of growing up

The senseless carnage of war

A soldier's suppression of commonalities

The collapse of a soldier's individual identity
14 Which of these lines contains assonance?
"Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain"

"The swallows fly low"

"Through the pause of night"

"The forest-field of Shiloh-"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?
"While over them the swallows skim,"

"The church so lone, the log built one,"

"Over the field in clouded days,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Graceful and light

Stealthy and fast

Fearful and shaky

Dangerous and violent
17 What is the rhyme scheme of lines 4-8?
There isn't one

ABAC

ABAB

AABB
18 What describes the mood of the weather in them poem?
Rainy and somber

Snowy and peaceful

Sunny and happy

Freezing and harsh
19 What image bookends the poem?
A church

A graveyard

Rain clouds

Swallows
20 What does "hushed" mean in the context of the poem?
It refers to the silence in a church service.

It refers to the passing of the wounded soldiers and the resulting silence.

It refers to the exit movement of an army from a town.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
7

4

8

2
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?
Rhyme

Assonance

Metonymy

All three
23 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia
Skim

Prayer

Rain

Hushed
24 What does the phrase "parting groan" most likely mean?
Annoyed message

Bitter send off

Dying gasp

Grumbled goodbye
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?
Prejudice

War

Taxes

Famine

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