View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 7 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in the phrase "unstoried, artless, unenhanced" (line 15)?

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

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

4. According to the poem's second sentence, how did "we" find "salvation"?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is implied by the diction the speaker uses to describe the lands yet to be conquered by American settlers: "unstoried, artless, unenhanced" (line 15)?

2. What does the speaker claim makes the colonists "weak," and what is the solution to this weakness (line 8)?

3. What does the speaker mean by "the land vaguely realizing westward" (line 14)?

4. Describe the form of "The Gift Outright."

5. To whom is it implied the pronouns "our" and "we" refer in this poem?

6. Explain the synecdoche in line 4, "In Massachusetts, in Virginia."

7. Explain the poem's title.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 617 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample