The House (poem) Quizzes

The House (poem) Quiz

1 What was the name of Warsan Shire's first poetry collection?
Lemonade

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Extreme Girlhood

Her Blue Body
2 Where was Warsan Shire born?
Kenya

England

Somalia

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

Memory

Migration

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

He wakes up in a bathtub full of ice

He breaks into the basement of dreams

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

The House

For Women Who are Difficult to Love

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

warsan versus melancholy

The House

Her Blue Body
7 Warsan Shire was the Younger Poet Laureate of...
Los Angeles

Nairobi

Mogadishu

London
8 Shire edits which magazine...?
SPOOK

Honeysuckle

Ebony

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

Diaspora

Christianity

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

From something the speaker's father said

From something the speaker thought of

From something the speaker's first love said
11 "The House" uses what form to separate its stanzas?
Numbers

Roman numerals

Letters

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

Somali

Xhosa

Afrikaans
13 What is an example of a motif in "The House"?
The house

The jam jar

The kitchen of lust

The apple
14 The phrase "new, neat procedure" is likely referring to...
Castration

A birth

A sex change

A murder
15 Near the end of the poem the speaker is questioned by whom...
A true love

A police officer

A teacher

A social worker
16 Which is an example of a motif in "The House"?
Johnny's bottle of bleach

The house as a feminine body

The bathtub

The narrator's mother's warnings
17 What is one of Warsan Shire's main poetic subjects?
The trappings of ambition

The American dream

Queerness and gender identification

Diaspora and displacement
18 What is the function of humor in "The House"?
It represents the narrator's desire to connect with others

It adds lightness to contrast the poem's heaviness

It is a way of making other people laugh

It manages the darkness of what the narrator is saying
19 Warsan Shire's poetry was featured in which of these in 2016?
The Museum of Modern Art

The Nuyorican's slam poetry finals

Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer

Beyoncé's Lemonade
20 Warsan Shire was born in what year?
1963

1997

1984

1988

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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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