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

2. Which technique is used in the first line, "The land was ours before we were the land’s"?
(a) Anaphora.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Chiasmus.
(d) Allegory.

3. What techniques are used in the lines "She was ours/ In Massachusetts, in Virginia" (lines 3-4)?
(a) Antithesis and synecdoche.
(b) Apostrophe and antithesis.
(c) Asyndeton and apostrophe.
(d) Synecdoche and asyndeton.

4. 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 Civil War.
(c) The Pilgrims' first landing.
(d) The American Revolution.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the antecedent of "it" in the phrase "it was ourselves" (line 9)?

3. What technique is used in the line "Such as she was, such as she would become" (line 16)?

4. What technique is used in line 10, "We were withholding from our land of living"?

5. The repetition of the word "deed" in line 13 is an example of which technique?

(see the answer key)

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