The Émigrée Quizzes

The Émigrée Quiz

1 Which of the following is an example of personification?
"It may by now be a lie, banned by the state" (Line 15)

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

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

"The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes" (Line 9)
2 Which of the following is NOT a motif or symbol used in the poem?
Paper

Shadows

A wolf

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

A passport

A hollow doll

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

country / child

city / November

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

War

Language

Religion
6 In what year was "The Émigrée" published?
2001

1976

1983

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?
White

Earthy

Grey

Brown
9 Which of the following is NOT a metaphor in the poem?
"but my memory of it is sunlight-clear" (Line 2)

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

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

"my original view, the bright, filled paperweight" (Line 6)
10 The poem contains ____
four stanzas of nine lines each.

Tthree stanzas, with the first two containing eight lines and the final one containing nine lines.

rhree stanzas, with the first two containing nine lines and the final stanza containing eight lines.

rhree stanzas of eight lines each.
11 Which of the following is NOT used to describe the city?
A docile figure

Sunlight

A doll

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

Confronting

Calm

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

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country

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

An expatriate
14 Which of the following is NOT a simile used in the poem?
"...as time rolls its tanks" (Line 10)

"...docile as paper" (Line 19

"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 lie

A hollow doll

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

Colorful molecules

A hollow paperweight

December
17 What word is used at the end of each stanza?
Country

City

Sunlight

Girl
18 Which month is referenced in the poem?
March

November

December

January
19 The opening line alludes to ___.
World War 2

fairytales

Europe

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

Blank verse

Free verse

Iambic tetrameter
21 What is the city "sick with" according to Line 7?
Tyrants

War

Corrupt politicians

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

Warfare (tanks)

A fight with a loved one

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

The dolls

The tyrants

The walls
24 What is the speaker accused of?
Supporting the wrong side

Leaving

Tyranny and oppression

Absence and darkness
25 What does the speaker's shadow symbolize?
The speaker's love for her children

Even her own darkness is a symbol of her sunlit impression of her country

Evil

The personified city's cowardice

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