View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As Venus "flies" toward the sound of the hunting horn, to what bird does the speaker compare her (line 1027)?
(a) Falcon.
(b) Lark.
(c) Sparrow.
(d) Eagle.

2. What is the best definition of "sepulchres" in line 622, "His snout digs sepulchres where’er he goes"?
(a) Trenches.
(b) Graves.
(c) Wounds.
(d) Furrows.

3. Besides being goddess of the moon and the hunt, what significant power was Cynthia believed to possess?
(a) The power to control the weather.
(b) The power to cause sudden illness and death.
(c) The power to increase crop yields.
(d) The power to cause memory loss and hallucinations.

4. In line 868, "She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn," which technique best conveys Venus's straining to hear a quiet, far-off sound?
(a) Tone.
(b) Imagery.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Diction.

5. What technique is used in line 645, "Grew I not faint, and fell I not downright"?
(a) Anadiplosis.
(b) Parallelism.
(c) Chiasmus.
(d) Antistrophe.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Adonis tell Venus he primarily objects to about her professions of love?

2. In the conceit that Venus concludes her speech with near the end of the poem, what two things are compared?

3. What are the various forms of repetition in lines 833 and 834, "'Ay me!' she cries, and twenty times, 'Woe, woe!'/ And twenty echoes twenty times cry so," meant to convey?

4. What does Venus refer to as "ugly, meagre, lean"?

5. What technique is used in line 720, "'In night,' quoth she, 'desire sees best of all.'"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the construction of line 832, "Passion on passion deeply is redoubled," mimic the sense of what is happening in this passage?

2. What is the meaning of Venus's comments about veils and bonnets after Adonis's death?

3. What happens to Adonis's body at the end of the poem, and how does Venus respond?

4. Explain the pun in lines 827 and 828, when after Adonis leaves, the speaker says of Venus, "Even so confounded in the dark she lay,/ Having lost the fair discovery of her way."

5. What does Venus tell Adonis about his beauty and the boar?

6. What does Venus suggest Adonis do if he insists on hunting on the following day?

7. What is ironic about the description of the colors around the boar's mouth?

8. How does Venus contrast the behavior of fish and birds with the behavior of the boar?

9. What is conveyed by the personification and the simile in the passage where Venus runs through the brush toward the sounds of Adonis's hunting party?

10. What does Venus tell Adonis about the relationship between jealousy and her foreboding?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,079 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample