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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. To whom is the poem dedicated?
(a) Matthew Arnold.
(b) The poet's spouse.
(c) A Victorian minister.
(d) Christ.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What techniques are evident in the phrase "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?

2. What technique is employed in the line 9 phrase "oh, air, pride, plume, here"?

3. In lines 5 and 6, what is the bird's motion compared to?

4. Who is being referred to in line 10's "thee"?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the relationship of the content in the poem's final six lines to the content in lines 1-8.

2. Describe the poetic form of "The Windhover."

3. What is a "windhover," and what characteristic of its flight is focused on in this poem?

4. What is the meaning of the simile contained in lines 6 and 7: " As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding/ Rebuffed the big wind"?

5. What are the literal and figurative meanings of the poem's references to a "dauphin" and a "chevalier"?

6. How do the images in the last three lines support the idea that there is "no wonder" in the kestrel's fight (line 9)?

7. In "The Windhover," who is speaking, and what moves him to speak?

8. What makes a creature like the windhover an appropriate symbol for Christ?

9. What Christian paradox is expressed when the speaker refers to the bird as both a "minion" and a "dauphin" (lines 1-2)?

10. What is the relationship of the expression "in his riding/ Of the rolling level underneath him steady air" (lines 2-3) to the later reference to "the rein of a wimpling wing" (line 4)?

(see the answer keys)

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