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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 Oliver try to avoid awkwardness in as she is writing?

2. Which of these is a line from The Measure?

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

4. What kind of hands does Oliver hope to write her poetry with?

5. What had stacked up on the table in Work Sometimes?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what does Oliver say about the pond?

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

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

4. What did the turtle in The Measure do when Oliver stopped to help it?

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Religion was a theme that was touched on a number of times in this book. Where did this theme appear, and what are some of the different ways this theme was introduced?

Essay Topic 2

Mary Oliver has an incredible gift for creating touching analogies. What are some of the analogies shared in these poems, and what are their deeper meanings?

Essay Topic 3

What is the main message being sent in Work Sometimes, and how is this poem different from the other poems in the first section of this book?

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