The Émigrée Quizzes

The Émigrée Quiz

1 Which of the following is an example of personification?
"My city takes me dancing..." (Line 21)

"The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes" (Line 9)

"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15)

"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar" (Lines 12-13)
2 Which of the following is NOT a motif or symbol used in the poem?
Sunlight

A wolf

Shadows

Paper
3 Which of the following does the speaker not have?
A piece of paper

A passport

A paperweight

A hollow doll
4 "There once was a ____... I left it as a ___."
city / November

country / hollow doll

city / child

country / child
5 Which of the following is NOT a major theme in the poem?
Memory

War

Religion

Language
6 In what year was "The Émigrée" published?
1983

2001

1976

1987
7 Which of the following is an example of caesura?
"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)

"There once was a country... I left it as a child" (Line 1)

"I comb its hair and love its shining eyes" (Line 20)

"They accuse me of being dark in their free city" (Line 23)
8 Which color is used to describe the streets of the city?
Grey

White

Earthy

Brown
9 Which of the following is NOT a metaphor in the poem?
"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

"but my memory of it is sunlight-clear" (Line 2)

"my original view, the bright, filled paperweight" (Line 6)

"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)
10 The poem contains ____
rhree stanzas of eight lines each.

four stanzas of nine lines each.

rhree stanzas, with the first two containing nine lines and the final stanza containing eight lines.

Tthree stanzas, with the first two containing eight lines and the final one containing nine lines.
11 Which of the following is NOT used to describe the city?
A doll

White Streets

A docile figure

Sunlight
12 Which of the following best describes the speaker's tone when discussing the "city of walls?"
Threatened

Confronting

Calm

Docile
13 What is the definition of an émigrée?
A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

A person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons

An expatriate

A person on the move
14 Which of the following is NOT a simile used in the poem?
"...docile as paper" (Line 19

"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

"That child's vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)

"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)
15 What is the speaker's childhood vocabulary compared to?
A hollow doll

Tyranny

A grape

A lie
16 Which of the following is used to describe language?
Colorful molecules

December

A filled paperweight

A hollow paperweight
17 What word is used at the end of each stanza?
Country

Girl

City

Sunlight
18 Which month is referenced in the poem?
December

November

March

January
19 The opening line alludes to ___.
nothing

fairytales

Europe

World War 2
20 Which of the following best describes the poem's meter?
Free verse

Iambic pentameter

Iambic tetrameter

Blank verse
21 What is the city "sick with" according to Line 7?
Tyrants

War

Corrupt politicians

Malaria
22 What is the passage of time metaphorically compared to?
Warfare (tanks)

A waterfall

A fight with a loved one

A soothing balm
23 Who or what accuses the speaker?
An unspecified "they"

The tyrants

The walls

The dolls
24 What is the speaker accused of?
Absence and darkness

Tyranny and oppression

Leaving

Supporting the wrong side
25 What does the speaker's shadow symbolize?
The personified city's cowardice

Even her own darkness is a symbol of her sunlit impression of her country

Evil

The speaker's love for her children

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