Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quizzes

Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Quiz

1 What birds are mentioned at the poem's beginning and end?
Swallows

Blue Jays

Sparrows

Starlings
2 What word best describes the poem's tone?
Comedic

Elegiac

Nostalgic

Enraged
3 What religious imagery appears in the poem?
Stained glass

A wooden cross

A small church built from logs

A painted icon
4 What does the speaker say about the soldiers' personalities?
Being badly wounded has briefly divested them of their differences

They verbally express hopeful camaraderie to one another

They are silent and unmoving

They cling to their beliefs fiercely, even in the face of death
5 Where do the events of the poem take place?
In the middle of a gunfight

In a tactical meeting

In a battlefield hospital

In a field in the aftermath of a battle
6 What does the image of the bullet represent?
The soldiers' focus on tactical prowess

The rupture of the soldiers' regional alliances

The soldiers' grim determination to win

The soldiers' faith in politicians
7 What is the poem's title referencing?
A whaling ship

The signing of the Declaration of Independence

A town in Massachusetts

A battle during the Civil War
8 What does the line "Fame or country least their care" describe?
The signing of a treaty

Soldiers returning home

The newfound understanding between the dying soldiers

Flying swallows
9 What is the poem's main thematic thread?
A historical reckoning with slavery

Southern aristocratic values

The aftermath of war

The history of a navy yard
10 Which of the following is NOT an image in the poem?
Swallows

A church

April rain

Bayonets
11 What is Shiloh's historical reputation?
A bitter stalement

A rallying cry for the Confederacy

A Union surrender

A key victory for the Union
12 Which of the following describes a character in the poem?
Ulysses S. Grant

Anonymous soldiers

Robert E. Lee

Battlefield medics
13 Which of the following is NOT a conflict in the poem?
The senseless carnage of war

A soldier's suppression of commonalities

The collapse of a soldier's individual identity

The struggle of growing up
14 Which of these lines contains assonance?
"Through the pause of night"

"Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain"

"The swallows fly low"

"The forest-field of Shiloh-"
15 Which of these lines contains a reference to religion?
"Over the field in clouded days,"

"While over them the swallows skim,"

"The church so lone, the log built one,"

"(What like a bullet can undeceive!)"
16 Which adjectives describe the swallows?
Fearful and shaky

Stealthy and fast

Graceful and light

Dangerous and violent
17 What is the rhyme scheme of lines 4-8?
ABAB

AABB

ABAC

There isn't one
18 What describes the mood of the weather in them poem?
Freezing and harsh

Sunny and happy

Snowy and peaceful

Rainy and somber
19 What image bookends the poem?
A church

Rain clouds

A graveyard

Swallows
20 What does "hushed" mean in the context of the poem?
It refers to the passing of the wounded soldiers and the resulting silence.

It refers to the silence in a church service.

It refers to the exit movement of an army from a town.

It refers the migration pattern of swallows.
21 How many stanzas does the poem have?
4

7

2

8
22 Which of the following elements are at work in the poem?
Rhyme

Metonymy

All three

Assonance
23 Which of the following words is an example of onomatopoeia
Hushed

Prayer

Rain

Skim
24 What does the phrase "parting groan" most likely mean?
Annoyed message

Bitter send off

Grumbled goodbye

Dying gasp
25 What is the antagonizing force in the poem?
War

Taxes

Prejudice

Famine

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