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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 does the narrator say the wind has in 'Web'?

2. How many people does the narrator walk through the whorehouse with in 'An Old Whorehouse'?

3. What does the changing water remind the blue heron of in 'A Poem For the Blue Heron'?

4. What does the narrator feel during the storm in 'Lightning'?

5. Where does the snake hide when the rain comes in 'Rain in Ohio'?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does the person in 'Skunk Cabbage' love about the woods?

3. Who was John Chapman?

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

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

6. What does the narrator say about the trees at the Boston Hospital in 'University Hospital, Boston'?

7. What does the narrator of 'August' accept during the poem?

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

9. How does the narrator feel as she drives to the White Forest in 'The Bobcat'?

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 are some of the different natural settings included in this collection, and what did they each indicate about Oliver's personality?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Who was John Chapman, and how did he change the history and landscape of America?

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