2. "Music Swims Back To Me" is a reflection on the speaker's immersion in what?
(a) Medical interventions.
(b) Family.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Mental collapse.

3. Who bathes in the river in "It Is a Spring Afternoon"?
(a) The speaker's husband.
(b) The speaker.
(c) The speaker's lover.
(d) Blind men.

4. Who is "For the Year of the Insane" directed to?
(a) Ted Hughes.
(b) The Virgin Mary.
(c) Sylvia Plath.
(d) John Hughes.

5. Who does the author decide to endure the pains of life for in the last poem in Live or Die?
(a) Herself.
(b) Her parents.
(c) Her poetry.
(d) The people she loves most.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the subject of "Your Face on the Dog's Neck"?

2. "For John, Who Begs Me Not To Enquire Further" is a defense against whom?

3. Who does the speaker encounter on a ferry in "Letter Written On a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound"?

4. What is the author's relationship with the subject of "Somewhere in Africa"?

5. In what year did the author receive an award for Live or Die?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the two major themes dealt with in Live or Die, and how are they dealt with?

2. In All My Pretty Ones, Sexton uses more of a third person narrative approach with some of the poems. Why would this be difficult in confessional poetry?

3. How does Sexton's poetry put the reader in the middle of her life?

4. How was Live or Die received after its publication?

5. Explain how Sexton uses religion in All the Pretty Ones.

6. What is the significance of the title Live or Die?

7. How does Sexton treat her illness in her poetry?

8. Explain the poem "Suicide Note."

9. Give at least one example of Sexton's use of humor in Love Poems.

10. What does the preface of Live or Die reveal about the poems in it?

(see the answer keys)

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