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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 Louisiana Purchase.
(b) The Westward expansion of the United States.
(c) The forced resettlement of Native peoples.
(d) The American Civil War.

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

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

4. Which term most accurately describes the meter of "The Gift Outright"?
(a) Heroic verse.
(b) Free verse.
(c) Blank verse.
(d) Ballad meter.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. To what event does the phrase "more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" obliquely refer?

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

5. 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)?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

6. Explain the poem's title.

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

(see the answer keys)

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