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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 are most of the poems in this collection about?

2. What did Oliver do at the end of Work Sometimes?

3. What did Oliver say she was outside of while writing Work Sometimes?

4. What does Oliver say she wants readers of Everything to look beyond?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what does Oliver ask about the blue heron?

2. In Everything, where are some of the places Oliver states she wants to go when she writes?

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

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

5. What parts of grammar does Oliver say she wants to cherish in Everything, and why?

6. What does Oliver state the reader has probably felt before in Work Sometimes?

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

8. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what is personified in the last lines?

9. How did Oliver feel at the end of Work Sometimes?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role does symbolism play in these poems, and what are some of the major symbols presented?

Essay Topic 2

What are some of the main examples of irony from these poems? How do these moments of irony change the tone of those poems?

Essay Topic 3

How were the themes of life and death shown together? Why do you think Oliver chose to present these themes in tangent with each other?

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