Incident (Trethewey Poem) Quizzes

Incident (Trethewey Poem) Quiz

1 When was the poem published?
2000

2006

2001

2015
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Dark and eerie

Earnest and simple

Warm and direct

Distant and removed
3 Which of the following is NOT a poem by Trethewey?
Incident

Native Guard

Myth

Parker's Mood
4 What kind of story does the mood of the poem imitate?
A heroic ballad

A sea shanty

A love song

A ghost story
5 What does the poem depict?
A murder in the woods

A family's home being burned down

A major holiday

Members of the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross
6 What prize did Trethewey receive for the collection that "Incident" was included in?
A Golden Globe

The National Book Award

The Bollingen Prize

The Pulitzer Prize
7 What form does the poem utilize?
Sonnet

Villanelle

Pantoum

Haiku
8 Where was Trethewey born?
Richmond, Virginia

Montreal, Canada

Austin, Texas

Gulfport, Mississippi
9 What is the structure of a pantoum?
Six lines with an ABBACC rhyme scheme

The second and fourth lines of a stanza are reused as the first and third lines of the next stanza

Two lines of five syllables and one line of seven syllables

Ten lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, followed by a rhyming couplet
10 Where is the poem set?
In Birmingham, Alabama

In the woods

In Little Rock, Arkansas

In a small town at night, likely in the South
11 What is the title of the collection the poem was originally included in?
Monument

Thrall

Domestic Work

Native Guard
12 What pronoun does the speaker use to refer to themselves?
I

They

She

We
13 Which of the following lines contains assonance?
"we darkened our rooms, lit the hurricane lamps."

"We tell the story every year—"

"at the cross trussed like a Christmas tree,"

"It seemed the angels had gathered, white men in their gowns."
14 What does the speaker compare the Klan members to?
Beasts

Angels

Demons

Loose flames
15 Which of the following lines is an example of personification?
"The wicks trembled all night in their fonts of oil;"

"the charred grass still green."

"Nothing really happened."

"By morning all the flames had dimmed."
16 What is a "hurricane lamp"?
A specially designed lightbulb

An oil lantern

A flashlight

A candle
17 Why does the speaker use the word "trembling" to describe the wick of the hurricane lamp?
Because it rhymes with the next line

Because it suggests the fear they felt in that moment

Because the men outside were afraid

Because the fire wasn't burning brightly
18 Which of the following is an important symbol in the poem?
Flames

The moon

The trees

Rivers
19 When does the climax of the poem occur?
When the speaker peers out the window

When the speaker retells the story

When the men are shown around the cross

The morning after the cross burning
20 Who are the antagonists of the poem?
The members of the Klan

The other townspeople

A disembodied force

The governor
21 What is the meaning of the word "charred"?
Crunched

Shining brightly

Burnt and blackened

Grilled
22 Which of the following is NOT a theme of the poem?
Repression

Love

Fear

Storytelling
23 What is depicted in the poem "Myth"?
The story of Hades

The story of Orpheus

The story of Iphigenia

The story of Icarus
24 What is the genre of the poem?
Victorian poetry

Historical poetry

Ekphrasis

Pastiche
25 What is foreshadowed in the poem's opening lines?
That the speaker witnessed something troubling

That the speaker is bad at telling stories

That the speaker is nosy

That the speaker's family is close

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Study Guide for Incident (Trethewey Poem)

Incident (Trethewey Poem) study guide contains a biography of Natasha Trethewey, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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