View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Alarum," how does the poet describe us?
(a) As the present.
(b) As the future.
(c) As the past.
(d) As the loud toll on this planet.

2. In "The Shallows," how does Gorman describe us?
(a) Happy.
(b) Sad.
(c) Suspicious.
(d) Touch-deficient and light-starved.

3. In "Essex I," what was the Essex?
(a) An American whaling ship.
(b) A book.
(c) A type of tree.
(d) A Lord.

4. In "Fugue," what do we truly mean when we say goodbye?
(a) We will not meet again.
(b) We are always alone.
(c) Let us be able to say hello again.
(d) We need better friends.

5. In "At First," what did we not expect when we asked how others were faring?
(a) A job.
(b) An honest or full response.
(c) A song.
(d) A farm.

6. In "Lighthouse," what is no human to us in the last line?
(a) A friend.
(b) A lover.
(c) A winner.
(d) A stranger.

7. In "Cordage, or Atonement," what animal are we?
(a) The badger.
(b) The whale.
(c) The dog.
(d) The bird.

8. In "Good Grief," what is the origin of the word trauma?
(a) Fighting.
(b) Dying.
(c) Finding.
(d) Not just wound, but piercing or turning.

9. In "Ship's Manifest," what are we waiting for?
(a) To eat.
(b) To rise.
(c) To die.
(d) To remember what it is we're supposed to be doing.

10. In "Another Nautical," what suffix does the poet consider?
(a) -ship.
(b) -putting.
(c) -friend.
(d) -sitting.

11. In "School's Out," what does the announcement about school seem like?
(a) A bad omen.
(b) A winner.
(c) A risk.
(d) An axe-blow.

12. In "At First," what are our sentences as stilted as?
(a) A frog.
(b) A phone.
(c) A walk.
(d) A telegram.

13. In "Lucent," what are we stripped down like?
(a) A lightbulb.
(b) A bear.
(c) A fable.
(d) A wintered tree.

14. Who does the poet mention by name in "Pre-Memory?"
(a) Marianne Hirsch.
(b) Helen Begley.
(c) Enela Rigora.
(d) Michael Rinder.

15. In "Good Grief," what were we once barbed and brutal as?
(a) Hind quarters.
(b) Blades.
(c) Friends.
(d) Books.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Fugue," how do we fall into the news?

2. In "School's Out," what is not needed for graduation day?

3. In "Essex I," what were whales killed for?

4. In "Lucent," what does lumen mean?

5. In "Hephaestus," what is "that clear plunge"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 388 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample