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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. In lines 5 and 6, what is the bird's motion compared to?
(a) An ice skater.
(b) An arrow.
(c) A ball being thrown.
(d) A swing.

2. What technique is employed in the poem's final two lines, "blue-bleak embers, ah my dear/ Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion"?
(a) Imagery.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Oxymoron.

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

4. Who is being referred to in line 10's "thee"?
(a) The air.
(b) Christ.
(c) The windhover.
(d) The speaker.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What type of rhyme is seen in the poem's "B" lines"?

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

3. To whom is the poem dedicated?

4. What techniques are evident in the phrase "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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. 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)?

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

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

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

8. 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"?

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

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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