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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. What is the blue heron looking for in 'A Poem for the Blue Heron'?

2. What did John Chapman call women in 'John Chapman'?

3. What does the water turn to according to the metaphor in 'A Poem For the Blue Heron'?

4. Where is the narrator in 'Flying'?

5. What does the narrator say she is close to in 'Cold Poem'?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the vultures in 'Vultures' compared to in an ironic analogy?

2. What is the ironic idea included in 'Mushrooms'?

3. What does the narrator see before leaving the hospital in 'University Hospital, Boston'?

4. What is the person in 'Skunk Cabbage' looking for, and what do they find?

5. Where does personification fit in 'Lightning'?

6. What kind of annoyances does the narrator of 'Egrets' face while going to see the egrets?

7. What question is asked at the beginning of 'Ghosts'?

8. In 'First Snow', what is brought about by the first snow?

9. What does the narrator's companion tell her over and over while at the hospital in 'University Hospital, Boston'?

10. What is the central theme in the first four poems?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role does symbolism play in these poems and where does it appear? How is the tone and meaning of the poems altered by the presence of these symbols?

Essay Topic 2

There was a lot of interesting advice given and received in these poems. What are some examples of this advice, and what were the consequences of it?

Essay Topic 3

Oliver puts a huge emphasis on optimism in many of these poems. Which poems presented this idea, and how did they differ in the way each presented this theme?

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