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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Between which lines does the poem use "light rhyme"?
(a) A and C.
(b) B and D.
(c) A and B.
(d) B and C.

2. In lines 10 and 11, the speaker says that the fire "that breaks from thee" is a billion times "lovelier" and more what?
(a) Dangerous.
(b) Sanctified.
(c) Hypnotic.
(d) Rapturous.

3. What is a "chevalier" (line 11)?
(a) A knight.
(b) A horse.
(c) A falconer.
(d) A bird.

4. What techniques are evident in the phrase "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?
(a) Consonance and assonance.
(b) Assonance and euphony.
(c) Personification and consonance.
(d) Euphony and personification.

5. To whom is the poem dedicated?
(a) Matthew Arnold.
(b) A Victorian minister.
(c) The poet's spouse.
(d) Christ.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the author of "The Windhover"?

2. Which word is enjambed at the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2?

3. In lines 5 and 6, what is the bird's motion compared to?

4. What device is evident in line 10's "the fire that breaks from thee then"?

5. What would it mean to have "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Windhover," who is speaking, and what moves him to speak?

2. What is the relationship of the expression "in his riding/ Of the rolling level underneath him steady air" (lines 2-3) to the later reference to "the rein of a wimpling wing" (line 4)?

3. How do the images in the last three lines support the idea that there is "no wonder" in the kestrel's fight (line 9)?

4. What is the meaning of the simile contained in lines 6 and 7: " As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding/ Rebuffed the big wind"?

5. Describe the poetic form of "The Windhover."

6. Describe the relationship of the content in the poem's final six lines to the content in lines 1-8.

7. What are the literal and figurative meanings of the poem's references to a "dauphin" and a "chevalier"?

8. What makes a creature like the windhover an appropriate symbol for Christ?

9. What is a "windhover," and what characteristic of its flight is focused on in this poem?

10. What Christian paradox is expressed when the speaker refers to the bird as both a "minion" and a "dauphin" (lines 1-2)?

(see the answer keys)

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