The Windhover Quizzes

The Windhover Quiz

1 "The Windhover" is an example of which of the following poetic forms?
Dactylic hexameter

An epistolary poem

A sonnet

A mock-epic
2 The sight of the kestrel causes the speaker to
Reflect on other spontaneous or unexpected sources of beauty in life

Question and subsequently reaffirm his faith in God

Feel remorse at poetry's inability to fully capture natural beauty

Envy the ease and grace with which it navigates the buffeting winds
3 The phrase "morning morning's minion" is an example of
Synecdoche

Irony

Alliteration

Parataxis
4 Which of the following is NOT present in the line "High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing"?
Assonance

Consonance

Hyperbole

Alliteration
5 For the speaker, one of the things the kestrel symbolizes is...
Christ's grace

Human vanity and pride

His lost faith

His own grief
6 The meter of "The Windhover" is
Iambic pentameter

Trochaic hexameter

Sprung rhythm

Syllabic
7 Which of these statements about the final tercet of the poem is true?
It reflects on and extends the insights of the rest of the poem

It reverses many of the ideas of the previous tercet

It abandons metaphor in favor of more straightforward language

It undercuts the exhuberant tone of the opening octet
8 Gerard Manely Hopkins' conversion to Catholicism:
Spurred a new period of poetic innovation, in which he invented sprung rhythm

Was extremely disruptive to his personal relationships and career prospects

Was seen as a harmless, if somewhat unusual, idiosyncrasy

Inspired him to begin writing poetry
9 The tone of "The Windhover" is best characterized as:
Nervous and energetic

Despairing and frantic

Calm and hopeful

Exhuberant and philosophical
10 The "Heart in hiding" mentioned in the poem refers to:
A feeling of disconnection from life experienced by the speaker

A reference to an old folktale about a man who loses his heart

The heart of Christ, from whom he feels disconnected

The heart of his long lost love, for whom he still searches
11 What tone does the use of rhyme in the phrase "stirred for a bird" evoke?
Depression or regret

Humor or irony

Exasperation or pity

Fear or loathing
12 What is the difference between sprung rhythm and iambic pentameter?
Sprung rhythm counts only the stressed syllables in a line

Iambic pentameter requires a specific rhyme scheme, as seen in Shakespeare's sonnets

Sprung rhythm is a form of free verse

Iambic pentameter is much quicker-paced
13 The line "In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing" does NOT contain
Consonance

Caesura

Assonance

Alliteration
14 Which of the following explanations for why the speaker calls the kestrel "my chevalier!" is best?
Because chevalier is a colloquial way of referring to Christ

Because its wings flash silver light a knight's armor

Because it "rescued" him from the despondent mood he'd been stuck in

Because in medieval times knights used falcons to hunt game
15 Which of the following is an acceptable paraphrase of the line "No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion"
Of course seeing this falcon lifted my spirits, after all the hard, boring manual labor I've been doing

As wonderful as it is, the kestrel is no miracle; even in the most menial tasks we can find accidental beauty if we look for it

It's obvious: beauty is all around us, even in boring menial tasks like plowing

Really this falcon is nothing special; even the trudge of plowing turns up beautiful rich soil