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

2. To what event does the phrase "more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" obliquely refer?
(a) Columbus's voyage.
(b) The American Revolution.
(c) The Pilgrims' first landing.
(d) The American Civil War.

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

4. Who is the author of "The Gift Outright"?
(a) Donald Hall.
(b) Robert Lowell.
(c) Galway Kinnell.
(d) Robert Frost.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What does line 12 make clear is the "Gift" in the title "The Gift Outright"?

4. What techniques are used in the lines "Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,/ Possessed by what we now no more possessed" (lines 6-7)?

5. Which term most accurately describes the meter of "The Gift Outright"?

(see the answer key)

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