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

2. In lines 2-3, "in his riding/ Of the rolling level underneath him steady air," which word tells what the bird is "riding"?
(a) "Level."
(b) "Him."
(c) "Rolling."
(d) "Air."

3. To whom is the poem dedicated?
(a) A Victorian minister.
(b) The poet's spouse.
(c) Christ.
(d) Matthew Arnold.

4. 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What is the bird the "dauphin" of (line 2)?

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

5. Who is the author of "The Windhover"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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)?

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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"?

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

(see the answer keys)

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