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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 figure from Mexican folklore is referred to in "exhibits from The American Water Museum"?

2. In the context of "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," in the expression "madre mías," what is the most likely reason that mía is made plural?

3. What name for the Mojave people does the speaker share in "The First Water Is the Body"?

4. In "Waist and Sway," to what type of building is the beloved compared?

5. In "My Brother, My Wound," what does the speaker's brother call into the house?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In "Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid Camera," what does the speaker try to tell her brother about cranes, and what is its thematic significance?

3. In "The First Water Is the Body," what point does the speaker make about the limitations of words?

4. In "Waist and Sway," what temptation is the speaker trying to resist, and what is the outcome?

5. In "exhibits from The American Water Museum," what is depicted in the "Photograph from a South American newspaper," and what is its significance?

6. In "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," what is the rhetorical function of the lines: "I wanna rock, I-I wanna rock, I-I wanna rock/ right now" (37)?

7. In "It Was the Animals," who comes to the speaker's house, and what is that person carrying?

8. In the opening of "Snake-Light," what does the speaker literally see in the desert, and to what does she compare it?

9. In "Snake-Light," what does the speaker say happens when the word "Hikwiir" is said aloud (84)?

10. In "My Brother, My Wound," how is light used metaphorically?

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 thesis: "In Postcolonial Love Poem, Natalie Diaz re-centers many types of marginalized identities." Be sure to support your thesis with evidence from throughout the collection.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Write an essay that analyzes Diaz's use of both high- and low-cultural references in Postcolonial Love Song. Use textual evidence from at least five separate poems as support for your claims.

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