The Windhover Quizzes

The Windhover Quiz

By Spencer McAvoy · Edited by James Cooper · Last reviewed October 04, 2022

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

An epistolary poem

A mock-epic

Dactylic hexameter

A sonnet
2 The sight of the kestrel causes the speaker to

Question and subsequently reaffirm his faith in God

Reflect on other spontaneous or unexpected sources of beauty in life

Envy the ease and grace with which it navigates the buffeting winds

Feel remorse at poetry's inability to fully capture natural beauty
3 The phrase "morning morning's minion" is an example of

Alliteration

Synecdoche

Parataxis

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

Hyperbole

Assonance

Consonance

Alliteration
5 For the speaker, one of the things the kestrel symbolizes is...

Human vanity and pride

His own grief

Christ's grace

His lost faith
6 The meter of "The Windhover" is

Trochaic hexameter

Iambic pentameter

Syllabic

Sprung rhythm
7 Which of these statements about the final tercet of the poem is true?

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

It reflects on and extends the insights of the rest of the poem
8 Gerard Manely Hopkins' conversion to Catholicism:

Was seen as a harmless, if somewhat unusual, idiosyncrasy

Inspired him to begin writing poetry

Spurred a new period of poetic innovation, in which he invented sprung rhythm

Was extremely disruptive to his personal relationships and career prospects
9 The tone of "The Windhover" is best characterized as:

Exhuberant and philosophical

Despairing and frantic

Calm and hopeful

Nervous and energetic
10 The "Heart in hiding" mentioned in the poem refers to:

The heart of Christ, from whom he feels disconnected

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 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?

Humor or irony

Fear or loathing

Exasperation or pity

Depression or regret
12 What is the difference between sprung rhythm and iambic pentameter?

Iambic pentameter is much quicker-paced

Sprung rhythm is a form of free verse

Sprung rhythm counts only the stressed syllables in a line

Iambic pentameter requires a specific rhyme scheme, as seen in Shakespeare's sonnets
13 The line "In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing" does NOT contain

Consonance

Alliteration

Assonance

Caesura
14 Which of the following explanations for why the speaker calls the kestrel "my chevalier!" is best?

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

Because in medieval times knights used falcons to hunt game

Because chevalier is a colloquial way of referring to Christ

Because its wings flash silver light a knight's armor
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

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

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

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