Poetry Comprehension Practice Test 1

Poetry Comprehension Practice Test 1

This is the Poetry Comprehension Practice Test 1. This will help students in improving poetry reading comprehension skills.

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.

My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav’d of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and Kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say.

Look on the rising sun: here God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning joy in the noonday

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-brunt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

1. The Little Black Boy’ was born in
(1) the east coast
(2) the desert wastes
(3) the servants’ house
(4) the southern wild

Ans. 4

2. The Little Black Boy’ wished that he could be
(1) educated
(2) free
(3) white
(4) older

Ans. 3

3. The mother of ‘the Little Black Boy’ says God put people on earth
(1) to learn how to treat one another as equals
(2) to learn to endure his love
(3) to work off their sins
(4) to prepare them for future trials

Ans. 2

4. The mother of ‘the Little Black Boy’ says his dark skin and face are
(1) a cloud
(2) a blessing
(3) a veil
(4) a curse

Ans. 1

5. The phrase ‘like a shady grove’ is
(1) a personification
(2) a metaphor
(3) a simile
(4) an example of alliteration

Ans. a

6. Through the phrase ‘as if bereav’d of light, the poet hints at
(1) colour of the boy
(2) low self-esteem of the child
(3) lack of hope for the future
(4) All of the above

Ans. 4