View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "The Gift Outright," Lines 1-16.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the poem's second sentence, how did "we" find "salvation"?
(a) By realizing our own weakness.
(b) By fully surrendering ourselves to the land.
(c) By dedicating ourselves to the Christian God.
(d) By finding the courage to fight England.

2. What is the antecedent of "it" in the phrase "it was ourselves" (line 9)?
(a) "What we still were unpossessed by" (line 6).
(b) "What we now no more possessed" (line 7).
(c) "Something we were withholding" (line 8).
(d) "Still colonials" (line 5).

3. What does line 12 make clear is the "Gift" in the title "The Gift Outright"?
(a) The land Americans live on.
(b) Americans themselves.
(c) Freedom from England.
(d) Surrender and salvation.

4. What technique is used in line 10, "We were withholding from our land of living"?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Alliteration.
(c) Personification.
(d) Metonymy.

5. In line 15, what is the speaker calling "unstoried, artless, unenhanced"?
(a) The history of the United States.
(b) The American people.
(c) The American land.
(d) The wars fought to secure land.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what event does the phrase "more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" obliquely refer?

2. What technique is used in the lines "She was our land more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" (lines 2-3)?

3. What techniques are used in the lines "She was ours/ In Massachusetts, in Virginia" (lines 3-4)?

4. What is the implied antecedent of "our" and "we" in lines 1 and 2?

5. Which is the primary definition of "still" being used in the expression "still colonials" in line 5?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 269 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample