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 baby deer

The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet
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"?

N

H

M

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

Violent pursuit

Curious observation

Intimate friendship

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

Tears

A bomb

A feather

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

The doe

The sky

Herself

The snow
7 When was this poem published?

1933

1918

1945

1928
8 What is a buck?

A baby deer

A male deer

A deer without antlers

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

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

How strange a thing is death

letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?

The Buck in the Snow

Renascance

The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

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

The wall

The snow

The hemlocks

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

Sonnet

Haiku

Ode

It does not follow a traditional poetic form
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA A BACDAA

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 quizzical tone

A ghostly, mournful mood
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?

A poisonous plant

A heavy lock used in barns

A type of deer

A conifer tree
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?

By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines

By using assonance

By juxtaposing their red and white colors

By using the word "scalding"
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 winter cold

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

Life

Guilt

Ancestry

War
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?

The world of human society

The speaker's creativity

Nature's power over humanity

The abundance of summer
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 altering the rhyme scheme

By placing it in a separate line
23 Alliterative S sounds in the phrase "I saw them. I saw them suddenly go" communicate which of the following?

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The speaker's secrecy

The rushing of water outside

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

The speaker

The buck

The doe

Death
25 Which of the following does NOT describe the poem's tone?

Furious

Philosophical

Contemplative

Reflective

The Buck in the Snow Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Buck in the Snow is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

Study Guide for The Buck in the Snow

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.

Read the Study Guide for The Buck in the Snow…