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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 21, from the other side of what do the green birds sing?

2. In Poem 18, how does the poet feel of his own voice and the sound of birds?

3. What does the poet do with all the old ladies in Poem 18?

4. What is the heart compared to in Poem 25?

5. In Poem 20, what did the leaves cry?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is Poem 4 about in Chapter One? What imagery is used?

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

5. Describe the woman in Poem 21 of Chapter One.

6. In the eleventh poem of Chapter One, in what way does the author describe the "Wild West"?

7. What is the juxtaposition of setting in Poem 19 of Chapter One? How is memory involved?

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

9. How is life compared to a circus in Poem 17 of Chapter One?

10. In Chapter One, where does Poem 20 take place? With what does the poet fall in love?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss ways the author uses the structure of line breaks and punctuation to express the themes and give a visual aesthetic to his poetry. Cite examples where this takes place.

Essay Topic 2

Poem 2 of "A Coney Island of the Mind" begins, "Sailing thru the straits of Demos / we saw symbolic birds / shrieking over us." Describe the bird and animal imagery in this poem and how they relates to the poem's themes.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the poem "Junkman's Obbligato" from Chapter Two. What is unique about the use of rhyme and meter in this poem? In what ways is the poem a rallying cry?

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