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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 7 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Who is the author of "The Gift Outright"?
2. What techniques are used in the lines "She was ours/ In Massachusetts, in Virginia" (lines 3-4)?
3. 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)?
4. What is the antecedent of "it" in the phrase "it was ourselves" (line 9)?
5. In line 15, what is the speaker calling "unstoried, artless, unenhanced"?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does the speaker mean by "the land vaguely realizing westward" (line 14)?
2. To whom is it implied the pronouns "our" and "we" refer in this poem?
3. What does the speaker claim makes the colonists "weak," and what is the solution to this weakness (line 8)?
4. Explain the synecdoche in line 4, "In Massachusetts, in Virginia."
5. Describe the form of "The Gift Outright."
6. Explain the poem's title.
7. 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)?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
What spiritual claims does "The Gift Outright" make about the foundation and expansion of the American nation? How does diction like "surrender" and "salvation" advance its spiritual claim? What hidden premises are introduced into Frost's argument by the implied spiritual claims being made in this poem? If these hidden premises are disputed, does this weaken the overall effect of the argument being made in "The Gift Outright"? Write an essay that analyzes the poem's spiritual claims and considers how these claims impact the poem's overall argument. Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem; cite all borrowed language in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
What is the theme of "The Gift Outright"? What is the poem's subject matter, and what claim about Americans and the land does it advance? What is the poem's tone, and how is it created? How do the poem's diction and its use of chiasmus, parallelism, and repetition contribute to its meaning? How does line 13 impact the poem's overall meaning? To what extent does "The Gift Outright" either acknowledge or elide the violence integral to the nation's foundation and expansion? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the theme of this poem. Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem; cite all borrowed language in MLA format.
Essay Topic 3
How do chiasmus and parallelism support the tone of "The Gift Outright"? Do they serve other purposes, such as creating emphasis or clarifying the relationships among ideas? Write an essay in which you describe how these two techniques are used in the poem and analyze how they contribute to both tone and meaning. Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem; cite all borrowed language in MLA format.
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This section contains 796 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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