The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

1 What was the name of Warsan Shire's first poetry collection?
Her Blue Body

Lemonade

Extreme Girlhood

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
Kenya

America

Somalia

England
3 Which of these themes is "The House" NOT about?
Love

Migration

Memory

Sexual abuse
4 What happens to the character Johnny in "The House"?
He calls God through the window but receives no answer

He breaks into the basement of dreams

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He sneaks into the speaker's house and ends up chained in the basement
5 Which of Warsan Shire's poems went viral first?
The House

Backwards

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

River of Milk
6 What is the name of Warsan Shire's audio-poetry album on Bandcamp?
The House

Her Blue Body

Lemonade

warsan versus melancholy
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...
London

Nairobi

Los Angeles

Mogadishu
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
Ebony

Honeysuckle

SPOOK

Diode
9 Shire is often called a voice for...
Pacifism

Diaspora

Christianity

Radicalism
10 From where does "The House" get its title?
From something the speaker's mother said

From something the speaker's first love said

From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's father said
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?
Roman numerals

Letters

Numbers

Bullet points
12 The sentence "Nin soo joog laga waayo, soo jiifso aa laga helaa" is in what language?
Xhosa

Somali

Afrikaans

Zulu
13 What is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The kitchen of lust

The apple

The house

The jam jar
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...
A murder

Castration

A sex change

A birth
15 Near the end of the poem the speaker is questioned by whom...
A teacher

A police officer

A social worker

A true love
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The house as a feminine body

The bathtub

The narrator's mother's warnings

Johnny's bottle of bleach
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
The American dream

Diaspora and displacement

Queerness and gender identification

The trappings of ambition
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
It is a way of making other people laugh

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying

It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?
Beyoncé's Lemonade

The Museum of Modern Art

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1963

1984

1988

1997

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Study Guide for The House (poem)

The House (poem) study guide contains a biography of Warsan Shire, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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