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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Poem 24, the poet writes, "We squat upon the beach of love/ among Picasso _____ struck full of sand."

2. In Poem 19, the poet writes, "like every morning with its sharp shadows shadowing a ______."

3. In Poem 3, the poet writes of fur leaves and cobalt what?

4. In Poem 12, where did he hound the leaded ground?

5. In Poem 16, the poet writes, "Yet away around on the far side like the stage door of a circus tent is a wide wide vent in the _______."

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the statue described as in Poem 6 of Chapter One?

2. Describe Poem 7 of Chapter One. What literally happens in the poem, and what is the underlying meaning?

3. What is the Paradiso in Poem 13 of Chapter One?

4. Detail the events which take place in Poem 8, in Golden Gate Park.

5. Describe Goya's paintings as described by the author in Poem 1.

6. What happens in Poem 9 of Chapter One? What does the woman say to him in the poem? What is the mood?

7. What is the major theme of Poem 29 of Chapter One?

8. Poem 3 of Chapter One describes other visions of America. What are they?

9. What does the poet write about Beauty in Poem 10 of Chapter One?

10. Describe the Christ figure in Poem 5 of Chapter One.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the use of metaphor in the poem, "The Long Street." What two metaphors are used and what do they represent?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the structural elements of Poem 24 of the first chapter of the collection. What imagery does the poet use to describe "the beach of love"? How does the poet create the image of waves using line breaks and what is the significance of this?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the animal imagery prominent in Poem 11 of Chapter One. In this poem, the author writes, "The wounded wilderness of Morris Graves / is not the same wild west / the white man found." How does he go one to describe it?

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