The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is an aging hunter

The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified
2 How does the buck die?
From hunters

From disease

From the cold

The cause of the death is never stated
3 Which sound creates alliteration in the phrase "Under the heavy hemlocks"?
H

V

M

N
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Intimate friendship

Tentative interaction

Violent pursuit

Curious observation
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?
Blood

Tears

A bomb

A feather
6 Who does the speaker address in the poem's opening lines?
The sky

The doe

The snow

Herself
7 When was this poem published?
1945

1918

1928

1933
8 What is a buck?
A baby deer

A male deer

A female deer

A deer without antlers
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
How strange a thing is death

letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

The Buck in the Snow

Renascance

Second April
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The wall

The snow

The apple trees

The hemlocks
12 What is the poem's form?
Haiku

Ode

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Sonnet
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABBA BBCC ABCBA

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA B CCCCC

AAAAA A BACDAA
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
A ghostly, mournful mood

A firm, opinionated tone

A quizzical tone

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?
A poisonous plant

A conifer tree

A heavy lock used in barns

A type of deer
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?
By juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using assonance

By using the word "scalding"

By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?
Human/Animal interactions

Racism

Death

Nature
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
Nature's indifference

The coming of death

The effects of climate change

The winter cold
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
War

Life

Guilt

Ancestry
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
Two quintets and a couplet

Two quintains and two couplets

An octave and a sestet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
Nature's power over humanity

The abundance of summer

The speaker's creativity

The world of human society
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By using an exclamation point

By placing it in a separate line

By making it unclear whether he is alive

By altering the rhyme scheme
23 Alliterative S sounds in the phrase "I saw them. I saw them suddenly go" communicate which of the following?
The rushing of water outside

The speaker's secrecy

A sense of speed and movement

The deers' inability to speak clearly
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
Death

The doe

The speaker

The buck
25 Which of the following does NOT describe the poem's tone?
Contemplative

Furious

Reflective

Philosophical

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The Buck in the Snow study guide contains a biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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