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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. Who is the "flap-mouth’d mourner" referred to in line 920?

2. To what does Venus compare the fear of a person in love?

3. What technique is used in lines 1123 and 1124, "She looks upon his lips, and they are pale;/ She takes him by the hand, and that is cold"?

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

5. Which techniques are used in line 838, "love is wise in folly foolish witty"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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."

3. What trick do Venus's eyes play on her after she has been looking at Adonis's body for a few minutes?

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

9. How does Adonis contrast love and lust?

10. After Adonis's death, what does Venus predict about love?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the impact of the repetition and parallelism used in Venus and Adonis? The poem is notable both for the variety of these techniques--anaphora, alliteration, assonance, antanaclasis, epistrophe, polyptoton, chiasmus, antimetabole, and antithesis, among others--and for their frequency. How do these techniques create emphasis and highlight the relationships among ideas? In a broader sense, how do they establish ethos and impact the poem's tone? Write an essay in which you analyze the impact that the frequent and varied use of techniques of repetition and parallelism has on the poem's overall effect. Support your arguments with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the poem, making sure to 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

Narcissism is a motif that runs throughout Venus and Adonis. Where are there overt references to Narcissus, and where is narcissism merely implied? Does the poem seem to be characterizing both Venus and Adonis as narcissistic? What is the implication of the poem's narcissism motif? Write an essay in which you analyze where this motif occurs and what its significance is to the overall meaning of the poem. Support your arguments with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite any quoted language in MLA format.

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