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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. Which word is enjambed at the end of line 1 and the beginning of line 2?
(a) Morning.
(b) Minion.
(c) Kingdom.
(d) Daylight.

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

3. In lines 5 and 6, what is the bird's motion compared to?
(a) A swing.
(b) An ice skater.
(c) An arrow.
(d) A ball being thrown.

4. In line 5, what does the speaker claim the bird is feeling?
(a) Pride.
(b) Ecstasy.
(c) Awe.
(d) Anticipation.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the common name of the titular bird?

2. In lines 2-3, "in his riding/ Of the rolling level underneath him steady air," which word tells what the bird is "riding"?

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

4. Who is being referred to in line 10's "thee"?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

6. 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"?

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

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

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

10. 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)?

(see the answer keys)

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