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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) Slow, boring, repetitive work.
(b) Clumsy and random movement.
(c) A heavy feeling of apathy.
(d) Keen and attentive determination.

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

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

4. What device is evident in line 10's "the fire that breaks from thee then"?
(a) Hyperbole.
(b) Verbal irony.
(c) Personification.
(d) Apostrophe.

5. What technique is employed in the line 9 phrase "oh, air, pride, plume, here"?
(a) Asyndeton.
(b) Atanaclasis.
(c) Antithesis.
(d) Anaphora.

6. 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) Dangerous.
(c) Rapturous.
(d) Hypnotic.

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

8. What is a "chevalier" (line 11)?
(a) A knight.
(b) A horse.
(c) A falconer.
(d) A bird.

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

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

11. What technique is employed in the poem's final two lines, "blue-bleak embers, ah my dear/ Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion"?
(a) Metaphor.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Imagery.

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

13. In line 5, what does the speaker claim the bird is feeling?
(a) Ecstasy.
(b) Anticipation.
(c) Awe.
(d) Pride.

14. Where is the volta of "The Windhover"?
(a) Between lines 8 and 9.
(b) Between lines 4 and 5.
(c) Between lines 12 and 13.
(d) Between lines 11 and 12.

15. Between which lines does the poem use "light rhyme"?
(a) B and C.
(b) A and C.
(c) B and D.
(d) A and B.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which word is enjambed at the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2?

2. Which techniques are evident in the phrase "dapple-dawn-drawn" (line 2)?

3. What does the word "wimpling" literally mean in the context of line 4?

4. What is "sillion" (line 12)?

5. To whom is the poem dedicated?

(see the answer keys)

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