Haunted Houses – MCQs

1. According to the poem, what makes houses "haunted"?
   a) Supernatural evil spirits
   b) The presence of spirits of those who have lived and died there
   c) Architectural defects
   d) Historical traumas
2. How do the phantoms move through the haunted house?
   a) With loud footsteps and noise
   b) With feet that make no sound on the floors
   c) By appearing suddenly in each room
   d) By moving furniture around
3. Where does the speaker meet the phantoms in the house?
   a) Only in the bedrooms
   b) At the doorway, on the stair, along the passages
   c) Only in the attic
   d) At the dining table
4. How are the ghosts described in terms of visibility?
   a) Clearly visible and solid
   b) "Impalpable impressions on the air"
   c) Transparent like glass
   d) Only visible in mirrors
5. "There are more guests at table than the hosts / Invited" suggests:
   a) A crowded dinner party
   b) Unspoken spirits and ghosts present at dining alongside living people
   c) Trespassing in the house
   d) Unexpected visitors arriving
6. What can the speaker perceive that a stranger at the fireside cannot?
   a) The present moment
   b) Physical objects
   c) "All that has been"—the past and the ghosts inhabiting it
   d) Future events
7. What do the ghosts lack according to the poem?
   a) Intelligence
   b) Feelings
   c) "Title-deeds to house or lands"—legal ownership
   d) Purpose
8. What do the ghosts stretch from their graves?
   a) Their arms and legs
   b) "Dusty hands" to claim ownership of their former estates
   c) Chains and shackles
   d) Ropes
9. "Hold in mortmain still their old estates" means:
   a) They sell their properties
   b) They continue to possess their properties in a deathlike grip from beyond the grave
   c) They rent their properties
   d) They abandon their properties
10. What is "the spirit world" in relation to the earthly world?
    a) The same as the earthly world
    b) Completely separate and unreachable
    c) "Floats like an atmosphere" around the earthly world
    d) Beneath the earth
11. "Our little lives are kept in equipoise" by:
    a) Physical forces only
    b) "Opposite attractions and desires"—the conflict between earthly wants and noble aspirations
    c) Divine intervention
    d) Chance
12. What do the "perturbations" and "perpetual jar" refer to?
    a) Physical disturbances in the house
    b) The internal conflict between earthly desires and higher aspirations
    c) Arguments between ghosts
    d) Supernatural noises
13. According to the poem, what is the source of this inner conflict?
    a) Inherited trauma
    b) The influence of "an unseen star" or "undiscovered planet in our sky"
    c) Social pressure
    d) Physical illness
14. What does the moon's bridge of light symbolize?
    a) A literal way to reach the moon
    b) A connection between the spirit world and earthly world through imagination and dreams
    c) A path for ghosts only
    d) Light pollution
15. "Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd" suggests:
    a) Fear of the bridge
    b) The unstable, transient nature of the connection and the movement of imagination through it
    c) A crowded marketplace
    d) Bridge collapse
16. What "realm" does the moonlight lead into?
    a) The living world
    b) The business district
    c) "The realm of mystery and night"
    d) The seaside
17. How is the bridge from the spirit world described in the final stanza?
    a) Solid and steady
    b) Non-existent
    c) "Unsteady floor, that sways and bends"
    d) Made of gold
18. What wanders across this bridge from the spirit world?
    a) Ghosts only
    b) "Our thoughts above the dark abyss"
    c) Angels
    d) Physical objects
19. What is the overall theme of the poem?
    a) Fear of ghosts and haunting
    b) The interconnection between past and present, living and dead, earthly and spiritual realms
    c) Architecture and house design
    d) The futility of life
20. The poem was written in what literary style?
    a) Modernism
    b) Romanticism—emphasizing imagination, emotion and spiritual connection
    c) Realism
    d) Naturalism
21. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?
    a) ABAB
    b) AABBCC...
    c) Terza rima (ABA BCB CDC...)
    d) Free verse
22. The poem primarily uses which poetic device?
    a) Alliteration only
    b) Extended metaphor—houses as metaphors for lives, ghosts as memories
    c) Simile only
    d) Onomatopoeia

Answers: 1-b, 2-b, 3-b, 4-b, 5-b, 6-c, 7-c, 8-b, 9-b, 10-c, 11-b, 12-b, 13-b, 14-b, 15-b, 16-c, 17-c, 18-b, 19-b, 20-b, 21-c, 22-b.