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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. What is the most logical definition of the word "fair" in the context of line 1083, "Having no fair to lose, you need not fear"?

2. In line 1032, whose eyes does the speaker compare to "stars asham’d of day"?

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

4. What does Venus say the boar is looking for with its "downward eye" (line 1106)?

5. Where does Venus go first thing in the morning?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

3. Why does Venus say that nature should be convicted of treason, and what is Cynthia's plan to thwart what nature has done?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How does Adonis shift the power dynamic between himself and Venus in his favor? Does he do this deliberately, or is it an unconscious byproduct of his assertion of his own values? Is the poem portraying his chastity--and thus his power--as natural or unnatural? How do your answers to these questions shed light on the manner of his death? Why would Adonis refuse to heed the prophecy of a goddess--is it arrogance, mistrust of her motives, or an uncontrollable desire to hunt? What is conveyed about Adonis and his power when he is killed by the boar? Write an essay in which you consider the source of Adonis's power over Venus and the messages the poem conveys about this power. Support your analysis with evidence from the poem, citing any quoted material in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

You are aware that Shakespeare borrowed from Ovid and that Ovid borrowed from Ancient Greek stories in order to tell the tale of Venus and Adonis. But did the Ancient Greeks also borrow from other sources? Do some research into the Sumarian figures of Dumuzi and Inanna, the Babylonian figures of Tammuz and Ishtar, and the Phoenician figures of Adon and Astarte. What elements of the story stay the same, and what elements change over time? What do you suspect causes the changes in the story as it spreads from society to society? What light does this shed on Shakespeare's choices and the society that he was living in? Write an essay in which you take a position about how the gradual changes in this very old story shed light on the cultures that tell the story--including the culture of Elizabethan England. Support your assertions with evidence from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and your online historical research. Cite all sources in MLA format.

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