To My Dear and Loving Husband quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which description best fits the form of this poem?

   • A sonnet of fourteen lines that closes on one rhymed couplet
   • Free verse with no set rhyme and lines of very uneven length
   • Correct answer: Six rhymed couplets, in lines that are mostly iambic pentameter
   • Three four-line stanzas rhymed ABAB, in the manner of a hymn

   Correct. The twelve lines rhyme in pairs: we and thee, man and can, gold and hold, quench and recompence, repay and pray, persever and ever. Most lines have ten syllables in a mostly regular iambic beat.

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2. 2

   Question 2. In line 4 the speaker says, "Compare with me ye women if you can." What is she doing?

   • Correct answer: Daring other wives to show a marriage as happy as hers
   • Asking other women for advice on how to keep a husband
   • Warning other women not to fall in love with her husband
   • Inviting other wives to join her in a prayer for the colony

   After three lines that begin "If ever", she turns to other women and dares them to match her happiness. No other wife, she claims, can compare.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does the speaker say she prizes her husband's love more than?

   • The praise of the colony and the respect of its leaders
   • Her own life, her children and the home they have built
   • Her faith in God and her hope of a reward in heaven
   • Correct answer: Whole mines of gold and all the riches of the East

   Line 5 reads "I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold," and line 6 adds "all the riches that the East doth hold." The East means the lands of Asia, long famous for their riches.

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4. 4

   Question 4. In the line "My love is such that Rivers cannot quench," what does quench mean?

   • To satisfy a thirst by drinking deeply
   • Correct answer: To put out, as water puts out a fire
   • To fill a space until it overflows
   • To carry something swiftly downstream

   To quench is to put out, as water puts out a fire. Her love burns so strongly that whole rivers could not put it out. The thirst sense does not fit: rivers do not drink.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Line 8 reads "Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence." What does it say?

   • She owes her husband nothing, since love is freely given
   • Her husband must pay her back in gold for all her love
   • Correct answer: Nothing but her husband's love can repay her love for him
   • Nothing she can give him will ever repay his love for her

   Nothing ("ought" means anything) but love from her husband can repay her love. Only his love is a fair return for hers.

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6. 6

   Question 6. In the line "The heavens reward thee manifold I pray." what does manifold mean?

   • Correct answer: Many times over, in great measure
   • Made up of many separate parts
   • Quietly, in a private way
   • Once and for all, at the end

   Manifold here means many times over. She prays that heaven will reward her husband far more than she ever could. The sense of having many parts does not fit a reward.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why does the speaker pray, "The heavens reward thee manifold"?

   • She fears he has never been thanked for his work in the colony
   • She hopes heaven will send the couple the riches of the East
   • She wants heaven to reward her own faithfulness instead
   • Correct answer: She cannot repay his love herself, so she asks heaven to

   Line 9 says "Thy love is such I can no way repay,". Since she cannot pay her debt of love, she asks the heavens to pay it for her, many times over.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which statement best expresses the poem's central idea?

   • Wealth and comfort are the surest signs of a happy marriage
   • Correct answer: Married love is a treasure worth more than any wealth on earth
   • A wife should keep her feelings private, even from her husband
   • Love on earth must be given up to make room for faith in God

   The speaker prizes her husband's love above gold and the riches of the East, calls her own love one that "Rivers cannot quench," and says his love is a debt she can never repay.

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9. 9

   Question 9. The last line reads "That when we live no more, we may live ever." How can the speaker hope to live after they "live no more"?

   • The couple plan to leave the colony and start a new life far away
   • Their children will carry the family name on after they are gone
   • Correct answer: Life on earth will end, but they hope to live forever, in heaven
   • Their love will fade with age, though their marriage will go on

   In the Puritan sense of the line, to "live ever" is to live forever after death, that is, in heaven. The line before sets the condition: "in love lets so persever,", where lets means let us and persever means keep on steadily.

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