View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the moles hide under in 'Moles'?

2. What season does 'Mushrooms' take place in?

3. What does the trapdoor do in 'Web'?

4. What does the dust try to hide in the whorehouse?

5. What is the beast in 'Tasting the Wild Grapes'?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does the narrator of 'Fall Song' describe the present time?

4. What do the Sioux say about ghosts in the poem 'Ghosts'?

5. What does the narrator of 'Egrets' say allows them to step without fear?

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

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

8. How do most people feel about vultures according to the narrator of 'Vultures'?

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

10. In 'The Bobcat', what does the bobcat do that astounds the narrator?

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

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

Essay Topic 3

What are some of the key examples of gratitude in this book, and how do these instances affect the tone of the poems that had this as a central theme?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 588 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample