Walt Whitman’s
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
1. Who is the author of Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking? (UPSC, PGTRB, TNPSC, CUET)
a) Robert Frost
b) Emily Dickinson
c) Walt Whitman
d) T.S. Eliot
Answer: c) Walt Whitman
2. In which collection was Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking first published? (UGC-NET, PGTRB, NET, CUET)
a) Drum-Taps
b) Calamus
c) Leaves of Grass
d) Song of Myself
Answer: c) Leaves of Grass
3. Under what original title was Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking first published in 1859? (UPSC, PGTRB, TNPSC, CUET)
a) A Word Out of the Sea
b) A Child’s Reminiscence
c) A Poet’s Awakening
d) The Mockingbird’s Song
Answer: b) A Child’s Reminiscence
4. Where does the narrative of Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking take place? (UPSC, PGTRB, NET, CUET)
a) In a forest
b) On a beach by the sea
c) In the city
d) In a desert
Answer: b) On a beach by the sea
5. Which bird's song does the boy observe in the poem? (UPSC, PGTRB, TNPSC, CUET)
a) Nightingale
b) Mockingbird
c) Sparrow
d) Robin
Answer: b) Mockingbird
6. What causes the mockingbird to sing mournfully? (UPSC, UGC-NET, PGTRB, CUET)
a) Loss of its mate
b) Destruction of its nest
c) Arrival of winter
d) Illness
Answer: a) Loss of its mate
7. What does the mockingbird’s song awaken in the boy? (UPSC, PGTRB, NET, CUET)
a) Fear
b) Joy
c) His poetic vocation
d) A desire to flee
Answer: c) His poetic vocation
8. What single word does the sea whisper to the boy in the poem? (UPSC, UGC-NET, PGTRB, TNPSC, CUET)
a) Peace
b) Eternity
c) Death
d) Love
Answer: c) Death
9. What symbolic cycle does Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking explore through imagery of birth, death, and poetic awakening? (UPSC, PGTRB, NET, CUET)
a) Forgetting and memory
b) Immortality
c) Birth–death–rebirth
d) War and peace
Answer: c) Birth–death–rebirth
10. The “cradle” in the poem’s title primarily symbolizes: (UPSC, PGTRB, TNPSC, CUET)
a) Motherhood
b) The motion of ocean waves
c) The poet’s desk
d) A child’s bed
Answer: b) The motion of ocean waves
11. What is the dominant poetic technique used by Whitman in the opening lines? (UPSC, UGC-NET, PGTRB, CUET)
a) Free verse with anaphora and parallelism
b) Strict meter and rhyme
c) Terza rima
d) Sonnet form
Answer: a) Free verse with anaphora and parallelism
12. Which themes are embodied in Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking? (UPSC, PGTRB, SET, CUET)
a) Patriotic fervor
b) Loss, poetic awakening, and mortality
c) Romantic love
d) Urban alienation
Answer: b) Loss, poetic awakening, and mortality
13. The poem serves as Whitman's “origin poem” because it: (UPSC, PGTRB, NET, CUET)
a) Glorifies democracy
b) Shows how the boy becomes a poet
c) Describes the Civil War
d) Explains his publishing journey
Answer: b) Shows how the boy becomes a poet
14. What is the relationship between the mockingbird and the boy in the poem? (UPSC, PGTRB, TNPSC, CUET)
a) Hunter and prey
b) Companions in solitude
c) Teacher and student in poetic awakening
d) Enemies
Answer: c) Teacher and student in poetic awakening
15. Which image best captures the poem’s fusion of memory and nature as the source of poetry? (UPSC, PGTRB, NET, CUET)
a) Mountains and forests
b) Beach, sea, and bird song
c) Cityscape
d) Garden and flowers
Answer: b) Beach, sea, and bird song
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