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English 30-1

English 30-1 · Worksheets

Poetry

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

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Poetry

English 30-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Use the space to note the evidence or reasoning that decided it.

  1. A sonnet is a poem of

    1. a) fourteen lines
    2. b) twelve lines
    3. c) any length, if it rhymes
    4. d) eight lines

  2. Alliteration is the repetition of

    1. a) vowel sounds within words
    2. b) initial consonant sounds in nearby words
    3. c) whole words at the start of lines
    4. d) the final sounds of lines

  3. A stanza in a poem is most like

    1. a) a line of dialogue
    2. b) a sentence in prose
    3. c) a paragraph in prose
    4. d) a chapter in a novel

  4. A poem's tone shifts from wistful to resolute in its final stanza. The best reading is that the shift

    1. a) means the speaker has changed
    2. b) marks a change in the speaker's thinking that the poem has been building toward
    3. c) is a printing error
    4. d) shows the poet ran out of ideas

  5. Read: “The harbour keeps every boat it has ever drowned.” This line works mainly through

    1. a) alliteration on the h sound
    2. b) a regular metre that slows the line
    3. c) a simile comparing boats to people
    4. d) personification that gives the harbour intent, making loss feel deliberate

  6. Iambic pentameter is a line of

    1. a) five unstressed-stressed pairs
    2. b) four beats with a pause
    3. c) five syllables
    4. d) ten stressed syllables

  7. A poem rhyming abab cdcd has

    1. a) rhyming couplets
    2. b) alternating rhyme in four-line groups
    3. c) the rhyme scheme of a limerick
    4. d) no rhyme scheme

  8. A poet breaks a line immediately after the word “alone.” The most likely effect is that the word

    1. a) rhymes with the following line
    2. b) becomes the title of the poem
    3. c) is isolated by the white space, which reinforces its meaning
    4. d) must be read quickly

  9. Enjambment occurs when

    1. a) two lines rhyme
    2. b) a stanza is repeated
    3. c) a line ends with a full stop
    4. d) a sentence runs past the end of a line without pause

  10. The speaker of a poem is

    1. a) always the poet
    2. b) the person being addressed
    3. c) the voice telling the poem, which may not be the poet
    4. d) the reader

Answer key · Poetry

English 30-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. a) fourteen lines — Fourteen lines, traditionally with a set rhyme scheme and a turn in the argument. The turn — the volta — is usually the most interesting thing in it.
  2. b) initial consonant sounds in nearby words — Wild winds whipped. Repeated vowel sounds inside words is assonance, and repeated end sounds is rhyme.
  3. c) a paragraph in prose — A stanza groups lines into a unit of thought, as a paragraph groups sentences. Where a stanza breaks is a deliberate choice worth noticing.
  4. b) marks a change in the speaker's thinking that the poem has been building toward — A turn is structural, not accidental. The question to ask is what changed between the beginning and the end, and what in the poem caused it.
  5. d) personification that gives the harbour intent, making loss feel deliberate — Harbours do not keep or drown anything; granting them the will to do so turns an accident into something closer to appetite. That is the shift the line is built on.
  6. a) five unstressed-stressed pairs — Five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, so ten syllables with a da-DUM pulse. It is the default rhythm of English verse because it is close to how we speak.
  7. b) alternating rhyme in four-line groups — Letters mark which line endings rhyme with which. abab means lines one and three rhyme, and two and four — alternating rhyme across a quatrain.
  8. c) is isolated by the white space, which reinforces its meaning — Where a line breaks is one of the few controls a free-verse poet has. Ending on a word leaves it hanging in silence, so the form enacts what the word says.
  9. d) a sentence runs past the end of a line without pause — The line ends but the sense does not, so the reader is pulled forward and the words either side of the break get extra weight. A line that does stop at its end is end-stopped.
  10. c) the voice telling the poem, which may not be the poet — Treating the speaker as a persona rather than the poet keeps your reading honest, and it is the convention examiners expect.