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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. What does the word "wimpling" literally mean in the context of line 4?
(a) Rippling.
(b) Covering.
(c) Like a nun's habit.
(d) Muffling.

2. What type of rhyme is seen in the poem's "B" lines"?
(a) Eye.
(b) Slant.
(c) Feminine.
(d) Masculine.

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

4. What is the bird the "dauphin" of (line 2)?
(a) Flight.
(b) The air.
(c) Daylight.
(d) The dawn.

5. Which techniques are evident in the phrase "dapple-dawn-drawn" (line 2)?
(a) Alliteration and internal rhyme.
(b) Onomatopoeia and metaphor.
(c) Internal rhyme and onomatopoeia.
(d) Metaphor and alliteration.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is "sillion" (line 12)?

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

3. What techniques are evident in the phrase "Rebuffed the big wind" (line 7)?

4. In line 5, what does the speaker claim the bird is feeling?

5. What does line 10 say "Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume" do "here" (line 9)?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. 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)?

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

7. 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"?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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