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

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

Kenya

Somalia

England

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

Love

Migration

Memory

Sexual abuse
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?

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

He breaks into the basement of dreams

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

River of Milk

Backwards

For Women Who are Difficult to Love
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?

The House

Lemonade

Her Blue Body

warsan versus melancholy
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...

Los Angeles

London

Nairobi

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

SPOOK

Ebony

Honeysuckle

Diode
9 Shire is often called a voice for...

Radicalism

Pacifism

Diaspora

Christianity
10 From where does "The House" get its title?

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker thought of

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

Letters

Numbers

Roman numerals

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

Afrikaans

Xhosa

Zulu

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

The jam jar

The kitchen of lust

The apple

The house
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...

A sex change

A birth

Castration

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

A social worker

A true love

A police officer

A teacher
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 American dream

Queerness and gender identification

Diaspora and displacement

The trappings of ambition
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?

It is a way of making other people laugh

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others
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?

1963

1997

1988

1984

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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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