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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. In "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," what is a "traje de luces"?

2. In "My Brother, My Wound," to what does the speaker compare the light in the holes in the walls?

3. In "The Cure for Melancholy Is to Take the Horn," what does the speaker claim to have been changed into?

4. In "The First Water Is the Body," what city's water crisis is specifically mentioned?

5. What unusual typographic device is contained in "exhibits from The American Water Museum"?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid Camera," what does the speaker's brother request, and why?

2. In what two senses can the title "My Brother, My Wound" be interpreted?

3. In "exhibits from The American Water Museum," what story does the rock painting tell, and what is its significance to the speaker?

4. In "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," what metaphorical comparison is developed in the lines, "How many hours bowed against this Infinity of Blessed/ Trinity?" (37)?

5. In "It Was the Animals," what does the speaker's guest tell her the inscription is, and what is it in reality?

6. In "The First Water Is the Body," what specific concern does the speaker have about the Colorado River?

7. In "Isn't the Air Also a Body, Moving?" what leads the speaker to call the train caboose the best part of a train?

8. What two conceits are central to "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert"?

9. Explain the metaphor "Transubstantiation bone--hips of bread,/ wine-whet thighs" in "Ode to the Beloved's Hips" (37).

10. In "exhibits from The American Water Museum," what does the guidebook say?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you defend, refute, or qualify the following statement: "Natalie Diaz's collection Postcolonial Love Poem celebrates the strength of Mojave culture." Be sure to support your claims with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Each section of Postcolonial Love Poem is preceded by a quote. Investigate the contexts and meanings of these quotes and then write an essay that makes and defends a claim about how these quotes provide structure to the collection of poems. Use textual support to defend your ideas, and cite outside sources in MLA format.

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.

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