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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How is Oliver trying to establish the intimacy she desires in Work Sometimes?
(a) She has some suggestive innuendos.
(b) She uses a conversational tone.
(c) She is very open.
(d) She breaks down some barriers.

2. What does Oliver say she wants readers of Everything to look beyond?
(a) The meaning.
(b) The lines.
(c) The page.
(d) The words.

3. What does the editor say is Oliver's signature on her work?
(a) Her description.
(b) Her verbage.
(c) Her tone.
(d) Her method.

4. What is the turtle in Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, doing?
(a) Burying her eggs.
(b) Dying.
(c) Swimming in the lake.
(d) Teaching her babies to swim.

5. What else does the editor say there is an absence of in the first section of poems?
(a) Obscure references.
(b) Allusions.
(c) Confusing similes.
(d) Personification.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Oliver try to identify at the beginning of Work Sometimes?

2. What does the editor say there is an absence of in the first section of poems?

3. What does Oliver like to assign to inanimate objects in her poems?

4. What does Oliver call most of her poems?

5. Which of these is a line from The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?

Short Essay Questions

1. In The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First, what is the bird doing at the beginning of the poem?

2. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what does Oliver ask about a catbird?

3. In Everything, what kind of words does Oliver say she wants to avoid in her poetry, and what examples of good words does she give?

4. What did Oliver do at the beginning of The Measure?

5. What did the hawk do at the end of The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First?

6. In Everything, what does Oliver say she wants her poems to be able to do?

7. What is the main question Oliver asks in Work Sometimes?

8. In The Measure, how does Oliver say the turtle came to choose its course of travel for the day Oliver saw it?

9. What does Oliver say she wants to honor with her poem, Everything?

10. What did Oliver compare the feet of the hawk to in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First?

(see the answer keys)

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