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)

"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15)

"My city takes me dancing..." (Line 21)
2 Which of the following is NOT a motif or symbol used in the poem?
A wolf

Paper

Sunlight

Shadows
3 Which of the following does the speaker not have?
A piece of paper

A paperweight

A passport

A hollow doll
4 "There once was a ____... I left it as a ___."
country / hollow doll

city / November

country / child

city / child
5 Which of the following is NOT a major theme in the poem?
War

Religion

Memory

Language
6 In what year was "The Émigrée" published?
1976

1983

2001

1987
7 Which of the following is an example of caesura?
"There once was a country... I left it as a child" (Line 1)

"They accuse me of being dark in their free city" (Line 23)

"I comb its hair and love its shining eyes" (Line 20)

"That child’s vocabulary I carried here / like a hollow doll" (Lines 12-13)
8 Which color is used to describe the streets of the city?
Earthy

Brown

White

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

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

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

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

A docile figure

A doll

White Streets
12 Which of the following best describes the speaker's tone when discussing the "city of walls?"
Confronting

Calm

Docile

Threatened
13 What is the definition of an émigrée?
A person on the move

An expatriate

A person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country
14 Which of the following is NOT a simile used in the poem?
"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)

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

"...docile as paper" (Line 19
15 What is the speaker's childhood vocabulary compared to?
A hollow doll

A grape

A lie

Tyranny
16 Which of the following is used to describe language?
Colorful molecules

A filled paperweight

December

A hollow paperweight
17 What word is used at the end of each stanza?
Girl

City

Sunlight

Country
18 Which month is referenced in the poem?
January

November

March

December
19 The opening line alludes to ___.
fairytales

nothing

Europe

World War 2
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?
War

Tyrants

Corrupt politicians

Malaria
22 What is the passage of time metaphorically compared to?
A soothing balm

A fight with a loved one

Warfare (tanks)

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

The tyrants

The walls

The dolls
24 What is the speaker accused of?
Tyranny and oppression

Absence and darkness

Supporting the wrong side

Leaving
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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