The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is an aging hunter

The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is a baby deer
2 How does the buck die?
From hunters

From disease

The cause of the death is never stated

From the cold
3 Which sound creates alliteration in the phrase "Under the heavy hemlocks"?
V

H

M

N
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Curious observation

Intimate friendship

Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?
A bomb

Tears

A feather

Blood
6 Who does the speaker address in the poem's opening lines?
Herself

The snow

The sky

The doe
7 When was this poem published?
1933

1928

1918

1945
8 What is a buck?
A female deer

A male deer

A baby deer

A deer without antlers
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

How strange a thing is death

I saw them suddenly go

letting fall a feather of snow
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

The Buck in the Snow

Second April

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

The hemlocks

The snow

The apple trees
12 What is the poem's form?
Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Ode

Haiku
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
AAAAA A BACDAA

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA B CCCCC

ABABAB CDCDCD
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
A quizzical tone

A firm, opinionated tone

A ghostly, mournful mood

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

A conifer tree

A heavy lock used in barns

A poisonous plant
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?
By using assonance

By using the word "scalding"

By juxtaposing their red and white colors

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

Human/Animal interactions

Death

Racism
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
The coming of death

Nature's indifference

The winter cold

The effects of climate change
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
War

Ancestry

Life

Guilt
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
An octave and a sestet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

Two quintains and two couplets

Two quintets and a couplet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
Nature's power over humanity

The speaker's creativity

The world of human society

The abundance of summer
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By making it unclear whether he is alive

By using an exclamation point

By placing it in a separate line

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?
A sense of speed and movement

The speaker's secrecy

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The rushing of water outside
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
The doe

The buck

Death

The speaker
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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