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?

The cause of the death is never stated

From disease

From the cold

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

H

N

M

V
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?

Intimate friendship

Curious observation

Violent pursuit

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

A feather

Blood

Tears

A bomb
6 Who does the speaker address in the poem's opening lines?

The sky

Herself

The doe

The snow
7 When was this poem published?

1933

1945

1918

1928
8 What is a buck?

A male deer

A baby deer

A deer without antlers

A female deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?

I saw them suddenly go

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

How strange a thing is death

letting fall a feather of snow
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?

Second April

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

The Buck in the Snow

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

The apple trees

The snow

The hemlocks

The wall
12 What is the poem's form?

Sonnet

Ode

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Haiku
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA A BACDAA

AAAAA B CCCCC

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

A firm, opinionated tone

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A ghostly, mournful mood

A quizzical tone
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?

A heavy lock used in barns

A conifer tree

A poisonous plant

A type of deer
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?

By using assonance

By juxtaposing their red and white colors

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 effects of climate change

The winter cold

The coming of death
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?

Life

War

Guilt

Ancestry
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?

Two quintains and two couplets

An octave and a sestet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

Two quintets and a couplet
21 What does the orchard symbolize?

The world of human society

Nature's power over humanity

The speaker's creativity

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 placing it in a separate line

By altering the rhyme scheme

By using an exclamation point
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 rushing of water outside

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

The doe

The speaker

The buck

Death
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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