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?
England

Kenya

Somalia

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

Sexual abuse

Migration

Memory
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?
He calls God through the window but receives no answer

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
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
Backwards

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

The House

River of Milk
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?
Her Blue Body

warsan versus melancholy

Lemonade

The House
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...
London

Mogadishu

Nairobi

Los Angeles
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Diode

SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony
9 Shire is often called a voice for...
Radicalism

Pacifism

Christianity

Diaspora
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?
Numbers

Roman numerals

Letters

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

Zulu

Somali

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

The jam jar

The apple

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

A murder

A birth

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

A social worker

A police officer

A true love
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The bathtub

The house as a feminine body

The narrator's mother's warnings

Johnny's bottle of bleach
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 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?
Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

The Museum of Modern Art

Beyoncé's Lemonade
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1997

1988

1963

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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