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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does "shéer plód" mean (line 12)?
(a) Clumsy and random movement.
(b) A heavy feeling of apathy.
(c) Slow, boring, repetitive work.
(d) Keen and attentive determination.

2. What techniques are evident in the phrase "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?
(a) Personification and consonance.
(b) Assonance and euphony.
(c) Consonance and assonance.
(d) Euphony and personification.

3. In lines 5 and 6, what is the bird's motion compared to?
(a) An ice skater.
(b) A ball being thrown.
(c) An arrow.
(d) A swing.

4. What is the bird the "dauphin" of (line 2)?
(a) The air.
(b) Daylight.
(c) Flight.
(d) The dawn.

5. Which word is enjambed at the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2?
(a) Daylight.
(b) Morning.
(c) Minion.
(d) Kingdom.

6. Who is being referred to in line 10's "thee"?
(a) The windhover.
(b) The air.
(c) The speaker.
(d) Christ.

7. In lines 2-3, "in his riding/ Of the rolling level underneath him steady air," which word tells what the bird is "riding"?
(a) "Level."
(b) "Air."
(c) "Him."
(d) "Rolling."

8. What does line 10 say "Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume" do "here" (line 9)?
(a) Stir.
(b) Soar.
(c) Buckle.
(d) Break.

9. What is the common name of the titular bird?
(a) Osprey.
(b) Hawk.
(c) Kestrel.
(d) Kite.

10. What does the word "wimpling" literally mean in the context of line 4?
(a) Rippling.
(b) Covering.
(c) Muffling.
(d) Like a nun's habit.

11. In lines 10 and 11, the speaker says that the fire "that breaks from thee" is a billion times "lovelier" and more what?
(a) Sanctified.
(b) Rapturous.
(c) Hypnotic.
(d) Dangerous.

12. What would it mean to have "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?
(a) To have brushed against its force and been knocked back.
(b) To have abruptly and rudely responded to it.
(c) To have used rapid movements to shine or polish it.
(d) To have stood up to and turned away its advance.

13. What is "sillion" (line 12)?
(a) A type of soil.
(b) Sunshine.
(c) The sparkling of a diamond.
(d) An uncountable amount.

14. What type of rhyme is seen in the poem's "A" lines?
(a) Masculine.
(b) Slant.
(c) Feminine.
(d) Eye.

15. Which techniques are evident in the phrase "dapple-dawn-drawn" (line 2)?
(a) Internal rhyme and onomatopoeia.
(b) Onomatopoeia and metaphor.
(c) Metaphor and alliteration.
(d) Alliteration and internal rhyme.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a "chevalier" (line 11)?

2. Between which lines does the poem use "light rhyme"?

3. What type of rhyme is seen in the poem's "B" lines"?

4. Where is the volta of "The Windhover"?

5. Who is the author of "The Windhover"?

(see the answer keys)

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