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. 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)?
(a) Epistrophe and chiasmus.
(b) Antithesis and oxymoron.
(c) Oxymoron and epistrophe.
(d) Chiasmus and antithesis.

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

3. Which is the primary definition of "still" being used in the expression "still colonials" in line 5?
(a) Quiet.
(b) Unmoving.
(c) Nevertheless.
(d) Continuing to be.

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

5. What is alluded to in the phrase "the land vaguely realizing westward" (line 14)?
(a) The forced resettlement of Native peoples.
(b) The American Civil War.
(c) The Westward expansion of the United States.
(d) The Louisiana Purchase.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the author of "The Gift Outright"?

2. In line 15, what is the speaker calling "unstoried, artless, unenhanced"?

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

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

5. Which technique is used in the first line, "The land was ours before we were the land’s"?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 267 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample