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

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

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

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

5. 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 used rapid movements to shine or polish it.
(c) To have abruptly and rudely responded to it.
(d) To have stood up to and turned away its advance.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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)?

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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"?

(see the answer keys)

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