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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. The repetition of the word "deed" in line 13 is an example of which technique?
(a) Epistrophe.
(b) Antanaclasis.
(c) Anadiplosis.
(d) Epizeuxis.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in the line "Such as she was, such as she would become" (line 16)?

2. What is the antecedent of "it" in the phrase "it was ourselves" (line 9)?

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Explain the poem's title.

4. 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)?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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