The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is an aging hunter
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

M

N

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

Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction

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

A feather

Tears

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

The snow

The doe

The sky
7 When was this poem published?
1945

1918

1928

1933
8 What is a buck?
A deer without antlers

A female deer

A baby deer

A male deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go

How strange a thing is death
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
The Buck in the Snow

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

Second April

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

The apple trees

The hemlocks

The snow
12 What is the poem's form?
Ode

Haiku

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

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

ABABAB CDCDCD

ABBA BBCC ABCBA

AAAAA B CCCCC
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A firm, opinionated tone

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 poisonous plant

A type of deer

A conifer tree
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 placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines

By using the word "scalding"
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

The effects of climate change

Nature's indifference

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

Guilt

Life

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

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

An octave and a sestet

Two quintains and two couplets
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The abundance of summer

Nature's power over humanity

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 making it unclear whether he is alive

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?
The rushing of water outside

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The speaker's secrecy

A sense of speed and movement
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
The buck

Death

The speaker

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

Reflective

Philosophical

Furious

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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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