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

2. Which term most accurately describes the meter of "The Gift Outright"?

3. Which technique is used in the first line, "The land was ours before we were the land’s"?

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

5. What technique is used in the phrase "unstoried, artless, unenhanced" (line 15)?

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. 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. Explain the poem's title.

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What were Frost's views on America and its history? Does biographical information about his beliefs tend to support or undermine the conclusion that he understood the cost of nation-building and found it an acceptable price to pay to create the United States? Do some research into Frost's background, intellectual history, and political beliefs. Then, write an essay in which you use this research to shed light on the meaning of "The Gift Outright." Support your assertions with evidence drawn from your research and from Frost's poem; cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

How is Amanda Gorman's poem similar to and different from "The Gift Outright"? How do the poems' similarities reflect the cultural significance of presidential inaugurations? How do their differences reflect changing times? Write an essay in which you analyze what the similarities and differences in the meaning and tone of these poems convey about what changes and what remains the same in the meaning and tone of presidential inaugurations. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both poems; cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Read Frost's poem "Mending Wall" (widely available online). What is the speaker's attitude toward order, rules, and the uncritical acceptance of tradition? What does his neighbor seem to believe about the possession of land, and how does the speaker react to this belief? What is he really suggesting to his neighbor when he says that it might be elves who have broken the wall? Is the attitude of the speaker of "The Gift Outright" similar or different? What does this speaker's use of legal language convey about his belief in "law and order"? What does he seem to believe about the uncritical acceptance of tradition? What does he seem to believe about the possession of land? How is this related to the poem's hidden premises and the beliefs suggested by the poem's final two lines? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about a significant similarity or difference in the attitudes of these two speakers towards traditional notions of order, land ownership, or some other concept central to the argument advanced by "The Gift Outright." Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both poems; cite all sources in MLA format.

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