The Buck in the Snow Quizzes

The Buck in the Snow Quiz

1 Which best describes the speaker?
The speaker is a baby deer

The speaker is unidentified

The speaker is a lightly veiled version of the poet

The speaker is an aging hunter
2 How does the buck die?
From the cold

From disease

From hunters

The cause of the death is never stated
3 Which sound creates alliteration in the phrase "Under the heavy hemlocks"?
H

N

V

M
4 Which best describes the speaker's relationship to the buck?
Violent pursuit

Intimate friendship

Tentative interaction

Curious observation
5 Millay uses a simile to compare falling snow to which of the following?
A feather

A bomb

Blood

Tears
6 Who does the speaker address in the poem's opening lines?
The doe

Herself

The snow

The sky
7 When was this poem published?
1933

1928

1918

1945
8 What is a buck?
A deer without antlers

A male deer

A female deer

A baby deer
9 Which of the following lines includes personification?
I saw them suddenly go

letting fall a feather of snow

How strange a thing is death

into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.
10 Which collection was this poem originally a part of?
The Ballad of the Harp Weaver

Renascance

The Buck in the Snow

Second April
11 Which detail may allude to the story of the garden of Eden?
The snow

The wall

The apple trees

The hemlocks
12 What is the poem's form?
Ode

Haiku

It does not follow a traditional poetic form

Sonnet
13 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABBA BBCC ABCBA

ABABAB CDCDCD

AAAAA A BACDAA

AAAAA B CCCCC
14 What is the most prominent effect of the poem's repeated long O end rhymes?
A ghostly, mournful mood

Emphasis on the similar-sounding word "doe"

A firm, opinionated tone

A quizzical tone
15 Which best defines the word "hemlock" as used in this poem?
A conifer tree

A poisonous plant

A heavy lock used in barns

A type of deer
16 How does Millay emphasize the contrast between the buck's blood and the snow?
By placing the words "blood" and "snow" in two different lines

By using assonance

By using the word "scalding"

By juxtaposing their red and white colors
17 Which is NOT a major theme of this poem?
Nature

Human/Animal interactions

Racism

Death
18 Which of the following does the "white sky" NOT suggest?
The effects of climate change

Nature's indifference

The coming of death

The winter cold
19 What can the blood be said to symbolize?
War

Ancestry

Guilt

Life
20 What types of stanza appear in this work?
Two quintets and a couplet

An octave and a sestet

A quintet, a monostich, and a sestet

Two quintains and two couplets
21 What does the orchard symbolize?
The speaker's creativity

The abundance of summer

The world of human society

Nature's power over humanity
22 How does Millay dramatize the revelation of the buck's death?
By making it unclear whether he is alive

By placing it in a separate line

By altering the rhyme scheme

By using an exclamation point
23 Alliterative S sounds in the phrase "I saw them. I saw them suddenly go" communicate which of the following?
The speaker's secrecy

The rushing of water outside

A sense of speed and movement

The deers' inability to speak clearly
24 Who is the poem's antagonist?
The doe

Death

The speaker

The buck
25 Which of the following does NOT describe the poem's tone?
Furious

Contemplative

Philosophical

Reflective

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The Buck in the Snow study guide contains a biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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