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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the bird the "dauphin" of (line 2)?

3. What technique is employed in the poem's final two lines, "blue-bleak embers, ah my dear/ Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion"?

4. What does line 10 say "Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume" do "here" (line 9)?

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

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. 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"?

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

4. 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)?

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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