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

The cause of the death is never stated

From the cold

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

V

H

N
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Violent pursuit

Tentative interaction

Curious observation

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

Tears

Blood

A feather
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?
1945

1928

1933

1918
8 What is a buck?
A female deer

A baby deer

A male deer

A deer without antlers
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
letting fall a feather of snow

I saw them suddenly go

How strange a thing is death

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with 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 snow

The hemlocks

The apple trees

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

Sonnet

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Haiku
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?
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 poisonous plant

A conifer tree

A type of deer
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?
Racism

Human/Animal interactions

Death

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

The effects of climate change

The winter cold

Nature's indifference
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
Life

Ancestry

War

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

Two quintains and two couplets

Two quintets and a couplet

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

The speaker's creativity

The abundance of summer

The world of human society
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By altering the rhyme scheme

By using an exclamation point

By making it unclear whether he is alive

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?
A sense of speed and movement

The deers' inability to speak clearly

The rushing of water outside

The speaker's secrecy
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
The doe

Death

The buck

The speaker
25 Which of the following does NOT describe the poem's tone?
Philosophical

Contemplative

Reflective

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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