The Émigrée Quizzes

The Émigrée Quiz

1 Which of the following is an example of personification?
"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar" (Lines 12-13)

"The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes" (Line 9)

"My city takes me dancing..." (Line 21)

"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15)
2 Which of the following is NOT a motif or symbol used in the poem?
A wolf

Paper

Shadows

Sunlight
3 Which of the following does the speaker not have?
A paperweight

A hollow doll

A piece of paper

A passport
4 "There once was a ____... I left it as a ___."
city / child

city / November

country / child

country / hollow doll
5 Which of the following is NOT a major theme in the poem?
Religion

War

Language

Memory
6 In what year was "The Émigrée" published?
1983

2001

1987

1976
7 Which of the following is an example of caesura?
"I comb its hair and love its shining eyes" (Line 20)

"There once was a country... I left it as a child" (Line 1)

"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)

"They accuse me of being dark in their free city" (Line 23)
8 Which color is used to describe the streets of the city?
Grey

Earthy

Brown

White
9 Which of the following is NOT a metaphor in the poem?
"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

"but my memory of it is sunlight-clear" (Line 2)

"my original view, the bright, filled paperweight" (Line 6)

"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)
10 The poem contains ____
Tthree stanzas, with the first two containing eight lines and the final one containing nine lines.

four stanzas of nine lines each.

rhree stanzas of eight lines each.

rhree stanzas, with the first two containing nine lines and the final stanza containing eight lines.
11 Which of the following is NOT used to describe the city?
Sunlight

White Streets

A doll

A docile figure
12 Which of the following best describes the speaker's tone when discussing the "city of walls?"
Calm

Docile

Threatened

Confronting
13 What is the definition of an émigrée?
An expatriate

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

A person on the move

A person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons
14 Which of the following is NOT a simile used in the poem?
"...docile as paper" (Line 19

"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

"and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves" (Line 11)

"That child's vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)
15 What is the speaker's childhood vocabulary compared to?
Tyranny

A grape

A hollow doll

A lie
16 Which of the following is used to describe language?
A filled paperweight

December

A hollow paperweight

Colorful molecules
17 What word is used at the end of each stanza?
City

Sunlight

Country

Girl
18 Which month is referenced in the poem?
March

November

January

December
19 The opening line alludes to ___.
Europe

fairytales

World War 2

nothing
20 Which of the following best describes the poem's meter?
Iambic pentameter

Iambic tetrameter

Free verse

Blank verse
21 What is the city "sick with" according to Line 7?
Tyrants

Corrupt politicians

Malaria

War
22 What is the passage of time metaphorically compared to?
Warfare (tanks)

A fight with a loved one

A soothing balm

A waterfall
23 Who or what accuses the speaker?
An unspecified "they"

The walls

The dolls

The tyrants
24 What is the speaker accused of?
Leaving

Absence and darkness

Supporting the wrong side

Tyranny and oppression
25 What does the speaker's shadow symbolize?
Even her own darkness is a symbol of her sunlit impression of her country

Evil

The speaker's love for her children

The personified city's cowardice

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