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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In line 1043, what is the speaker comparing to "a king perplexed in his throne"?

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

3. Which is the best summary of the meaning conveyed by the stanza that describes Venus's competing feelings of hope and despair?

4. What does line 972 compare to "many clouds consulting for foul weather"?

5. What critique does the speaker offer of Venus's song?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Adonis contrast love and lust?

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

3. What conclusion does Venus reach about why the boar killed Adonis, and what does this cause her to reflect about her own behavior?

4. What happens to Venus's eyes when she first sees Adonis's dead body?

5. What criticism does the speaker make of lovers' stories?

6. 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."

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

8. How does Venus portray Adonis having sex as a kind of selfless action and his choosing chastity as selfishness?

9. What does Venus say about death when she thinks that Adonis has died?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Venus and Adonis convey about lust and love? In the world of the poem, how do the two emotions relate to one another? Is there any difference between these two feelings? Does either lead to human happiness? What do love and lust look like in practice, and how do they impact the characters in the poem? How do the two feelings relate to morality? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the messages that Venus and Adonis conveys about love and lust. Support your analysis with evidence from the poem, citing any quoted material in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

A year after he published Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare published his only other epyllion, The Rape of Lucrece. Does this poem seem as heavily influenced by drama as Venus and Adonis? Read enough of this second epyllion to have a sense of its style. Then, write an essay that compares and contrasts these two mini-epics, focusing your analysis on the extent to which the poems emphasize dialogue and immediate action. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from both poems, and cite any quoted language in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Venus and Adonis ironically dismisses many of the religious values of Ancient Greece and Rome. But does it express the Christian worldview of Renaissance England in other ways, as well? What values and beliefs does the poem seem to endorse--either explicitly or implicitly? Does the poem contain any religious symbolism, allusions, metaphors, or similes? Write an essay in which you analyze the extent to which Venus and Adonis actively promotes the Christian worldview, as opposed to simply denying the Classical worldview. Support your arguments with evidence from throughout the poem, making sure to cite any quoted language and outside sources in MLA format.

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