The Raven

1. Which pair best describes the speaker’s mood in the first six stanzas of the poem?

A) calm and content

B) indifferent and defeated

C) grieving and agitated

D) angry and terrified

2.  Which example best supports your choice in Question 1?

A) “Presently my soul grew stronger”

B) “While I nodded, nearly napping”

C) “—vainly I had sought to borrow / From my books surcease of sorrow”

D) “Tis the wind and nothing more!”

3. Which of the following symbols is also an allusion in “The Raven”?

A) Pallas Athena, symbolizing the speaker’s initial rationality

B) the raven, symbolizing death

C) purple velvet, symbolizing wealth and comfort

D) the chamber door, symbolizing the barrier between life and death

4. Which line offers the best example of alliteration?

A) “‘Prophet!’ said I, ‘thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!’”

B) “Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—"

C) “This it is and nothing more.”

D) “What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore”

5. What is the rhyme scheme of “The Raven”?

A) AABBCC

B) ABABAB

C) ABCBBB

D) ABCDEE

6. What literary device is exemplified in the line “On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before”?

A) dramatic irony

B) personification

C) denotation

D) rhyme