View a FREE sample

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) Alliteration and internal rhyme.
(b) Internal rhyme and onomatopoeia.
(c) Onomatopoeia and metaphor.
(d) Metaphor and alliteration.

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

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

4. What is the bird the "dauphin" of (line 2)?
(a) The air.
(b) Flight.
(c) Daylight.
(d) The dawn.

5. What device is evident in line 10's "the fire that breaks from thee then"?
(a) Verbal irony.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Personification.

Short Answer Questions

1. In line 5, what does the speaker claim the bird is feeling?

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

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. Which word is enjambed at the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. 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)?

6. 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"?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 866 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample