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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. To whom is the poem dedicated?

2. What would it mean to have "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. 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"?

6. 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)?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 886 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)

View a FREE sample