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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 alluded to in the phrase "the land vaguely realizing westward" (line 14)?

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

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Explain the poem's title.

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

6. 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)?

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

Alabama poet laureate Ashley M. Jones begins her poem "Friendly Skies, or, Black Woman Speaks Herself into God" with the following verse paragraph:

"—we’re taxiing at an airport named after american president ronald reagan. people tell me he was an american hero. sometimes, labels are jumbled in the big dark bag we call manifest destiny. sometimes, things get lost in its velvet mouth."

What do you suppose Jones means when she refers to the "velvet mouth" of manifest destiny? How does skillful rhetoric--evocative diction, rhythmic language, carefully chosen detail, etc.--help to create that "velvet mouth"? Write an essay in which you analyze the "velvet mouth" of "The Gift Outright," demonstrating how Frost's skillful use of language creates an emotional appeal that obscures some of the less appealing facts of American history. Support your assertions with evidence from "The Gift Outright." Cite any borrowed language in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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