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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) Stir.
(c) Break.
(d) Buckle.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In lines 10 and 11, the speaker says that the fire "that breaks from thee" is a billion times "lovelier" and more what?

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

4. What device is evident in line 10's "the fire that breaks from thee then"?

5. What is the common name of the titular bird?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. 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"?

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

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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