The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Her Blue Body

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
Somalia

America

Kenya

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

He breaks into the basement of dreams

He calls God through the window but receives no answer

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
Backwards

The House

River of Milk

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

warsan versus melancholy

Her Blue Body

Lemonade
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...
Los Angeles

Mogadishu

London

Nairobi
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Diode

Ebony
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's mother said

From something the speaker thought of
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?
Letters

Bullet points

Roman numerals

Numbers
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 jam jar

The house

The apple

The kitchen of lust
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...
A murder

Castration

A sex change

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

A social worker

A teacher

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

The house as a feminine body

The bathtub

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

The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Diaspora and displacement
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 manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

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

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Museum of Modern Art
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1984

1963

1997

1988

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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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