View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Atwood compare late poems to in the poem "Late Poems"?
(a) An old friend.
(b) A cat.
(c) A letter from a sailor that arrives after he has drowned.
(d) The past.

2. What will survive us after we're gone in the poem "Carving the Jacks"?
(a) The songs.
(b) The stories.
(c) The work of our knives.
(d) The darkness.

3. What word does the speaker in the poem "September Mushrooms" imagine the mushrooms sent up before they withered?
(a) Mercy.
(b) Beware.
(c) Glory.
(d) Hail!

4. What made a comeback for people to buy after the war in the poem "Coconut"?
(a) Pizza.
(b) Milk.
(c) Chocolate.
(d) Oranges.

5. What does Atwood compare being in love to in "Everyone Else's Sex Life"?
(a) A pool.
(b) An expensive house.
(c) A demented rose-red circus tent.
(d) A really good movie.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens to Cassandra's hometown in the poem "Cassandra Considers Declining the Gift"?

2. What is the subject of the poem "Blizzard" curled up like?

3. What do the speaker's passports photos remind her of in the poem "Passports"?

4. What does the drone seem to wonder in the poem "A Drone Scans the Wreckage"?

5. What would be only fair in Part 7 of the poem "Songs For Murdered Sisters"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the speaker's mother in the poem "Blizzard" fight?

2. What are some contradictions about cicadas in the poem by the same title?

3. What are the images in tension with each other in the poem titled "A Genre Painting"?

4. What kinds of stories did the people used to tell in the poem "The Dear Ones?"

5. In the poem "Aflame," what is happening to the world?

6. In the poem "Frida Kahlo, San Miguel, Ash Wednesday," where does Frida Kahlo live on?

7. What happens when the Tin Woodwoman gets a massage in the poem by the same name?

8. Why should one avoid wearing cotton when making recordings, according to the poem "Princess Clothing"?

9. In the poem "Health Class (1953)," why does the teacher scare the students?

10. Why do people carve jack-o-lanterns in the poem "Carving the Jacks"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 695 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample