Poetry Analysis — Answer Key
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. In Frost's 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,' what is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?
A) AABA
B) ABAB
C) AABB
D) ABCB
Frost uses AABA: lines 1, 2, and 4 rhyme; line 3 introduces the next stanza's rhyme.
2. In the line 'The woods are lovely, dark and deep,' which device is most clearly used?
A) Hyperbole
B) Imagery
C) Onomatopoeia
D) Idiom
Imagery: 'lovely, dark and deep' paints a vivid sensory picture of the snowy woods.
3. What is the most likely theme of 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'?
A) Fear of nature's power
B) Joy of winter sports
C) Duty pulling us from beauty
D) Excitement of speed
The speaker is drawn to the woods but must fulfill obligations, the central tension and theme.
4. Emily Dickinson's 'Hope is the thing with feathers' uses which figurative device for hope?
A) Simile
B) Hyperbole
C) Onomatopoeia
D) Metaphor
Dickinson directly equates hope to a bird, making it a metaphor, not a simile.
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1. The speaker in 'Stopping by Woods' has 'miles to go before I sleep.'
'Sleep' repeats, layering literal rest and a deeper symbolic meaning of life's end.
2. The repeated last line in Frost's poem is an example of repetition for emphasis.
Repetition emphasizes the speaker's burden of duty and adds haunting musicality.
3. Dickinson calls hope 'the thing with feathers,' so feathers symbolize a bird.
Feathers signal a bird, and Dickinson's metaphor casts hope as a small singing bird.
4. The 'I' or voice telling a poem is known as the speaker.
The speaker is the voice within a poem, separate from the actual poet's identity.
5. When a poem's words carry both literal and deeper meanings, we say they have a symbolic meaning.
Symbolic meaning lets concrete images stand for abstract ideas like hope or duty.