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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: Lines 1-216.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the poem's motifs is most clearly illustrated by line 41, "Backward she push’d him, as she would be thrust"?
(a) The difference between lust and love.
(b) The reversal of expected gender roles.
(c) Adonis's unnatural lack of desire.
(d) The contrast between passion and virtue.

2. What technique is used in line 59, " Even so she kiss’d his brow, his cheek, his chin"?
(a) Asyndeton.
(b) Anthimeria.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Chiasmus.

3. What is Adonis being compared to when the speaker says he is "Like a dive-dapper" (86)?
(a) A swimmer.
(b) A duck.
(c) An osprey.
(d) A fish.

4. What technique is used in lines 19 and 20, "not cloy thy lips with loath’d satiety,/ But rather famish them amid their plenty"?
(a) Malapropism.
(b) Paradox.
(c) Polysyndeton.
(d) Inversion.

5. Which is the best interpretation of "sick-thoughted Venus" in line 5?
(a) Venus's thoughts are evil.
(b) Venus's thoughts are unnatural.
(c) Venus is sick with love for Adonis.
(d) Venus cannot think clearly because she is ill.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Adonis do just before he turns his head away from Venus's kiss?

2. What colors are most prominent in the first 36 stanzas of the poem?

3. What does Venus compare Adonis to in line 8?

4. What techniques are used in lines 25 and 26, "With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,/ The precedent of pith and livelihood"?

5. What technique is used in line 111, "Strong-temper’d steel his stronger strength obey’d"?

(see the answer key)

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