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

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

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

4. 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. In lines 5 and 6, what is the bird's motion compared to?

4. In lines 2-3, "in his riding/ Of the rolling level underneath him steady air," which word tells what the bird is "riding"?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. 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)?

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

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

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

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

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. 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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