Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

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

Sparrows

Blue Jays

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

Elegiac

Comedic

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

A wooden cross

A small church built from logs

Stained glass
4 What does the speaker say about the soldiers' personalities?
Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They are silent and unmoving

They cling to their beliefs fiercely, even in the face of death

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

In a field in the aftermath of a battle

In a tactical meeting

In the middle of a gunfight
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?
The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess

The soldiers' grim determination to win

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

The soldiers' faith in politicians
7 What is the poem's title referencing?
A whaling ship

A battle during the Civil War

A town in Massachusetts

The signing of the Declaration of Independence
8 What does the line "Fame or country least their care" describe?
Flying swallows

The newfound understanding between the dying soldiers

Soldiers returning home

The signing of a treaty
9 What is the poem's main thematic thread?
The aftermath of war

Southern aristocratic values

A historical reckoning with slavery

The history of a navy yard
10 Which of the following is NOT an image in the poem?
April rain

Swallows

Bayonets

A church
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?
Battlefield medics

Anonymous soldiers

Robert E. Lee

Ulysses S. Grant
13 Which of the following is NOT a conflict in the poem?
The collapse of a soldier's individual identity

The senseless carnage of war

The struggle of growing up

A soldier's suppression of commonalities
14 Which of these lines contains assonance?
"The swallows fly low"

"Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain"

"Through the pause of night"

"The forest-field of Shiloh-"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?
"The church so lone, the log built one,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"

"Over the field in clouded days,"

"While over them the swallows skim,"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Graceful and light

Dangerous and violent

Fearful and shaky

Stealthy and fast
17 What is the rhyme scheme of lines 4-8?
ABAC

ABAB

AABB

There isn't one
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 graveyard

A church

Rain clouds

Swallows
20 What does "hushed" mean in the context of the poem?
It refers to the exit movement of an army from a town.

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

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.

It refers to the silence in a church service.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
7

8

2

4
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?
Assonance

Metonymy

All three

Rhyme
23 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia
Rain

Hushed

Skim

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

Bitter send off

Grumbled goodbye

Dying gasp
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?
Prejudice

War

Famine

Taxes

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