The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

1 What was the name of Warsan Shire's first poetry collection?

Her Blue Body

Lemonade

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

Kenya

America

England

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

Memory

Love

Migration

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

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He calls God through the window but receives no answer

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

He breaks into the basement of dreams
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?

Backwards

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

River of Milk

The House
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?

Her Blue Body

Lemonade

The House

warsan versus melancholy
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

Radicalism

Pacifism

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

From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker's mother said

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

Roman numerals

Letters

Numbers

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

Somali

Afrikaans

Xhosa

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

The house

The kitchen of lust

The apple

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

Castration

A murder

A sex change

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

A social worker

A true love

A teacher

A police officer
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?

The bathtub

The house as a feminine body

Johnny's bottle of bleach

The narrator's mother's warnings
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?

The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Diaspora and displacement

Queerness and gender identification
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It is a way of making other people laugh

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

The Museum of Modern Art

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

Beyoncé's Lemonade
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?

1997

1963

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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