The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

1 What was the name of Warsan Shire's first poetry collection?
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Her Blue Body

Lemonade

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
England

Kenya

America

Somalia
3 Which of these themes is "The House" NOT about?
Migration

Love

Memory

Sexual abuse
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?
He breaks into the basement of dreams

He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He calls God through the window but receives no answer
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

River of Milk

Backwards
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?
warsan versus melancholy

The House

Lemonade

Her Blue Body
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...
London

Los Angeles

Nairobi

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Diode

Honeysuckle

Ebony

SPOOK
9 Shire is often called a voice for...
Diaspora

Pacifism

Christianity

Radicalism
10 From where does "The House" get its title?
From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?
Letters

Roman numerals

Bullet points

Numbers
12 The sentence "Nin soo joog laga waayo, soo jiifso aa laga helaa" is in what language?
Xhosa

Zulu

Afrikaans

Somali
13 What is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The jam jar

The house

The kitchen of lust

The apple
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...
A sex change

Castration

A birth

A murder
15 Near the end of the poem the speaker is questioned by whom...
A teacher

A police officer

A true love

A social worker
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
Johnny's bottle of bleach

The narrator's mother's warnings

The house as a feminine body

The bathtub
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
The trappings of ambition

Queerness and gender identification

Diaspora and displacement

The American dream
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
It is a way of making other people laugh

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?
Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Museum of Modern Art

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1997

1984

1988

1963

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Study Guide for The House (poem)

The House (poem) study guide contains a biography of Warsan Shire, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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