View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is used in line 645, "Grew I not faint, and fell I not downright"?
(a) Antistrophe.
(b) Anadiplosis.
(c) Parallelism.
(d) Chiasmus.

2. What does Venus refer to as "ugly, meagre, lean"?
(a) Lust.
(b) Love.
(c) Death.
(d) Life.

3. When Venus suddenly has hope that Adonis is alive, who is the "rash suspect" that she "doth extenuate" (line 1009)?
(a) The boar.
(b) Adonis.
(c) Death.
(d) Love.

4. In the conceit that Venus concludes her speech with near the end of the poem, what two things are compared?
(a) A father and a child.
(b) An infant and a cradle.
(c) Adonis and the flower.
(d) The flower and an infant.

5. What is Venus saying when she asks the world "what canst thou boast/ Of things long since, or anything ensuing" (lines 1077 and 1078)?
(a) The world is a cruel place that does not allow love to grow naturally.
(b) Any time before Adonis's birth or after his death is worthless.
(c) The relationship between the past and the present is not as clear as people pretend.
(d) The world has no right to brag about itself if it would allow Adonis to die.

Short Answer Questions

1. What characteristic of the boar does Venus's description primarily stress?

2. Besides being goddess of the moon and the hunt, what significant power was Cynthia believed to possess?

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

4. What does Venus tell Adonis is usually unlike her?

5. What technique is used in lines 815 and 816, "Look how a bright star shooteth from the sky,/ So glides he in the night from Venus’ eye"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the details of Venus's vision of Adonis and the boar.

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

3. What does Venus say about death when she thinks that Adonis has died?

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

5. 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."

6. How does Adonis contrast love and lust?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 977 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample