The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

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

Lemonade

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Her Blue Body

Extreme Girlhood
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?

America

England

Somalia

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

Love

Migration

Sexual abuse

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

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He breaks into the basement of dreams

He calls God through the window but receives no answer

He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

Backwards

River of Milk

The House
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...

London

Los Angeles

Nairobi

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?

Diode

SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony
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's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker thought of

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

Bullet points

Numbers

Letters

Roman numerals
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 jam jar

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

A murder

A birth

Castration

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

A police officer

A true love

A social worker

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

The house as a feminine body

The narrator's mother's warnings

Johnny's bottle of bleach

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

The American dream

The trappings of ambition

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 represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It is a way of making other people laugh

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?

The Museum of Modern Art

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

Beyoncé's Lemonade

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer
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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