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English 10-1

English 10-1 · Worksheets

Mixed review · Devices and poetry

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Devices, Poetry. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Mixed review · Devices and poetry

English 10-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Show your work in the space provided.

  1. A series of short, blunt sentences most likely creates

    1. a) urgency or abruptness
    2. b) luxury
    3. c) calm
    4. d) confusion about the narrator

  2. Free verse is poetry that

    1. a) uses no imagery
    2. b) is one stanza
    3. c) has no line breaks
    4. d) has no regular metre or rhyme scheme

  3. Alliteration is the repetition of

    1. a) initial consonant sounds in nearby words
    2. b) line endings
    3. c) vowel sounds
    4. d) whole words

  4. Approaching an unseen poem, the most productive first step is

    1. a) reading for literal sense before looking for devices
    2. b) identifying the rhyme scheme
    3. c) deciding the theme at once
    4. d) listing every device

  5. The volta, or turn, of a poem is

    1. a) the title
    2. b) the point where the thought or feeling shifts direction
    3. c) the first rhyme
    4. d) the final line

  6. A simile compares two things

    1. a) without using like or as
    2. b) by exaggeration
    3. c) through sound
    4. d) using like or as

  7. The strongest paragraphs about a poem usually

    1. a) paraphrase stanza by stanza
    2. b) compare the poem to personal experience
    3. c) list techniques in order
    4. d) connect a specific technique to a specific effect on meaning

  8. A line of iambic pentameter contains

    1. a) ten stressed syllables
    2. b) five rhyming words
    3. c) five syllables
    4. d) five iambs — ten syllables, unstressed then stressed

  9. A stanza in a poem is

    1. a) a grouped set of lines, separated by space
    2. b) a rhyming pair
    3. c) a single line
    4. d) the theme

  10. A poet who breaks an established metre in one line is most likely

    1. a) ending the poem
    2. b) changing the rhyme scheme
    3. c) making a mistake
    4. d) drawing attention to that line

Answer key · Mixed review · Devices and poetry

English 10-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. a) urgency or abruptness — Syntax carries tone as surely as diction does. Long accumulating clauses do the opposite, and a shift between the two mid-passage is nearly always deliberate.
  2. d) has no regular metre or rhyme scheme — Free does not mean unshaped. Line breaks, rhythm, repetition and white space are all still in play, and they are what an analysis should work with.
  3. a) initial consonant sounds in nearby words — Assonance repeats vowel sounds and consonance repeats consonants elsewhere in the word. All three slow a reader down and bind words together in the ear.
  4. a) reading for literal sense before looking for devices — Devices explain how a poem does what it does, which means you first need to know what it does. An analysis built on a misread literal sense collapses however many terms it contains.
  5. b) the point where the thought or feeling shifts direction — In a Petrarchan sonnet it usually arrives at line nine and in a Shakespearean one at the couplet, but any poem can have one. Locating it gives you the structure almost for free.
  6. d) using like or as — A metaphor makes the same comparison without the connective, which makes it more assertive: her voice was gravel claims more than her voice was like gravel.
  7. d) connect a specific technique to a specific effect on meaning — A device catalogue shows recognition; a paraphrase shows comprehension. The marks are in the link — this technique, in this place, does this to the meaning.
  8. d) five iambs — ten syllables, unstressed then stressed — It is close to the natural rhythm of spoken English, which is why so much English poetry uses it and why it can carry a conversation without sounding sung.
  9. a) a grouped set of lines, separated by space — Stanzas do for a poem roughly what paragraphs do for prose. Where the breaks fall is a choice, so a change in stanza length is worth noticing.
  10. d) drawing attention to that line — Departure only registers against a pattern. Once a rhythm is established, disrupting it is one of the loudest things a poet can do quietly.