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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What technique is used in the line "Such as she was, such as she would become" (line 16)?
(a) Symbolism.
(b) Anadiplosis.
(c) Anaphora.
(d) Chiasmus.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What techniques are used in the lines "She was ours/ In Massachusetts, in Virginia" (lines 3-4)?

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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)?

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

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

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

6. Explain the poem's title.

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

(see the answer keys)

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