Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

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

Blue Jays

Sparrows

Swallows
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Nostalgic

Enraged

Elegiac

Comedic
3 What religious imagery appears in the poem?
A painted icon

A small church built from logs

A wooden cross

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

They are silent and unmoving

Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They verbally express hopeful camaraderie to one another
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?
In the middle of a gunfight

In a tactical meeting

In a field in the aftermath of a battle

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

The soldiers' faith in politicians

The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances
7 What is the poem's title referencing?
A whaling ship

The signing of the Declaration of Independence

A battle during the Civil War

A town in Massachusetts
8 What does the line "Fame or country least their care" describe?
Soldiers returning home

The signing of a treaty

The newfound understanding between the dying soldiers

Flying swallows
9 What is the poem's main thematic thread?
The aftermath of war

A historical reckoning with slavery

The history of a navy yard

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

A church

Swallows

April rain
11 What is Shiloh's historical reputation?
A bitter stalement

A rallying cry for the Confederacy

A key victory for the Union

A Union surrender
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?
Battlefield medics

Robert E. Lee

Ulysses S. Grant

Anonymous soldiers
13 Which of the following is NOT a conflict in the poem?
The senseless carnage of war

A soldier's suppression of commonalities

The struggle of growing up

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

"Through the pause of night"

"The forest-field of Shiloh-"

"The swallows fly low"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?
"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"

"Over the field in clouded days,"

"While over them the swallows skim,"

"The church so lone, the log built one,"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Stealthy and fast

Dangerous and violent

Fearful and shaky

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

AABB

ABAC

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

Snowy and peaceful

Freezing and harsh

Sunny and happy
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 passing of the wounded soldiers and the resulting silence.

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

It refers to the silence in a church service.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
8

2

4

7
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?
All three

Metonymy

Rhyme

Assonance
23 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia
Skim

Hushed

Rain

Prayer
24 What does the phrase "parting groan" most likely mean?
Dying gasp

Grumbled goodbye

Annoyed message

Bitter send off
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?
Taxes

Prejudice

Famine

War

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