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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 editor say there is an absence of in the first section of poems?

2. Which of the following is not a place Oliver says she wants to be while writing her poems in Everything?

3. What color were the eyes of the animal in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?

4. What time of day did the poet try to save the animal in The Measure?

5. What is the subject of Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Oliver think the turtle was heading for in The Measure?

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

3. In The Measure, what does Oliver say happens to the lives that are watched over?

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

5. At the beginning of The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First, what does Oliver state the hawk finds joy in?

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

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

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

9. What did Mary Oliver compare the hawk in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First to when it was in the grass?

10. In The Measure, what does Mary Oliver say her watched over life resulted in and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are some of the particular animals that were included in these poems, and what did their inclusion do to the tone of the poems?

Essay Topic 2

How is prose poetry different from other forms, and what other effects did prose form have on the poems written in that style?

Essay Topic 3

Friendship is a strong theme throughout the book. Where are some places that this theme appears, and how do these moments affect the tone of those poems?

(see the answer keys)

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