View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Manhattan Is a Lenape Word," what creature does the speaker claim is walking down West 29th Street?

2. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," the speaker makes a reference to the "hundred-handed ones." Who were these figures?

3. In "Like Church," what does the speaker say she has "escaped through" (29)?

4. In "Blood-Light," what does the speaker say the story is about?

5. In "Asterion's Lament," what does the phrase, "Go forward, always down" represent (27)?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Mustangs," how are mustangs used symbolically?

2. In "Run'n'Gun," what life lessons does the speaker learn from playing basketball?

3. In "Asterion's Lament," what does the speaker mean by "how did Theseus find no joy in you?" (27)?

4. What play on the word "race" is used in "American Arithmetic"?

5. In "Like Church," what is the literal claim about the speaker's window and what is its figurative significance?

6. In "The Mustangs," what is important to the speaker about her brother's appearance?

7. In "The Mustangs," why does the speaker open the poem by reminding the reader that it was "In another life" that her brother was a high-school athlete (35)?

8. What is the speaker's argument for her hands as "gods" in "These Hands, If Not Gods"?

9. In "Skin-Light," what is the "work of all good yokes" (22)?

10. Explain the conceit introduced by the line, "I know another name for holy is water" in "Asterion's Lament" (27).

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose a poem we did not specifically discuss in class. Write an explication of this poem, explaining how its techniques create its meaning. At least some of your evidence should be quoted, and if you require outside sources to understand allusions, etc., be sure to cite your sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about how the collection Postcolonial Love Poems connects personal and political issues. Use textual support from at least five poems in the collection in defense of your claim.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about Diaz's use of humor in Postcolonial Love Poem. Where does she employ it, and to what purpose? Use evidence from at least five poems in the collection to support your ideas.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 980 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample