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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. Where was the poet Max Jacob from?

2. In "The Moose," why are the people's reactions to the moose surprising?

3. What literary device does "12 O'Clock News" employ?

4. What does Bishop's subject matter in the poems in Uncollected Work and Geography III tell us about her?

5. What does the devil remind the living in "Patience of an Angel"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the character in "The Giant Snail" an exaggerated human figure?

2. In what state does the poet imply she is currently in her poem "Sonnet," written in 1928?

3. How does Octavio Paz view the beginning of a new year in "January First"?

4. Which stanza in section XIV of "From 'The Death and Life of a Severino'" seems different from the others?

5. What do the various animals symbolize in "A Word with You"?

6. Why does the poet begins the section called Geography III with a geography lesson that throws a series of unanswered questions at the reader?

7. How is the character in "The Strayed Crab" an exaggerated human figure?

8. What does the porch symbolize in "Sunday at Key West"?

9. What are two meanings of the title "The Waiting Room"?

10. What does "12 O'Clock News" reveal about the way Bishop views familiar objects?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Bishop's use of personification in the three poems in Rainy Season; Sub Tropics. What does each animal tell us about the speaker's view of humanity? Why do you think Bishop chose the specific animals she did? How would the poem have been different if she had used exaggerated human characters?

Essay Topic 2

Bishop's writing was not immune to the politics of the day. "The Hanging of the Mouse" and "Lullaby for the Cat" deal to some extent with the political times in which they were written. Discuss Bishop's unique approach to politics and its effectiveness. How can the reader tell that these are political poems? How does Bishop try to mask this fact? What is her ultimate goal in writing these poems--are they merely art, or an attempt to effect political change?

Essay Topic 3

What is Bishop's attitude toward the characters in "Exchanging Hats"? Is it objective or judgmental? Support your claim with specific quotations from the poem. Does her attitude seem out of character for Bishop, considering the sense of humor she displays in other poems? Do you think her attitude has to do with the fact that the trend she witnesses is started by an "unfunny uncle"? Might she view things differently if the trend had been started by someone she admired?

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