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

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

3. 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.

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

5. What technique is used in the phrase "unstoried, artless, unenhanced" (line 15)?
(a) Euphemism.
(b) Assonance.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Asyndeton.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Explain the poem's title.

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

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

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

6. 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)?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 602 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample