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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. Who is the author of "The Windhover"?
(a) Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
(b) Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
(c) Gerard Manley Hopkins.
(d) Christina Rossetti.

2. What would it mean to have "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?
(a) To have stood up to and turned away its advance.
(b) To have brushed against its force and been knocked back.
(c) To have used rapid movements to shine or polish it.
(d) To have abruptly and rudely responded to it.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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. 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"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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