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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many parts is "The Double Image" divided into?
(a) Two.
(b) Five.
(c) Four.
(d) Seven.

2. What is the weather in "Song for a Lady"?
(a) Rainy.
(b) Sunny.
(c) Foggy.
(d) Snowy.

3. Who is the subject of "Somewhere in Africa"?
(a) Sylvia Plath.
(b) Ted Hughes.
(c) John Holmes.
(d) T. S. Eliot.

4. What is the tone of "Sylvia's Death"?
(a) Sadness.
(b) Peace.
(c) Fear.
(d) Jealousy.

5. Where is "The Double Image" set?
(a) San Francisco.
(b) New England.
(c) Paris.
(d) A hospital.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what month does "Eighteen Days Without You" take place?

2. What is the sister poem to "The Double Image"?

3. What kind of accident is the subject of "Pain for a Daughter"?

4. What is the subject of the author's first book of poetry?

5. What is the purpose of "For My Lover, Returning to His Wife"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sexton treat her illness in her poetry?

2. What is the significance of ending Part 1 of To Bedlam and Part Way Back with the poem "A Story For Rose On the Midnight Flight To Boston"?

3. What is the focus of Part 2 of To Bedlam and Part Way Back?

4. How does the collection Love Poems fit in with Sexton's other work?

5. What is the meaning of the title "The Fortress"?

6. Explain the poem "Eighteen Days Without You."

7. In All My Pretty Ones, Sexton uses more of a third person narrative approach with some of the poems. Why would this be difficult in confessional poetry?

8. What is the crossroads Sexton finds herself at in "The Fortress"?

9. Explain how Sexton uses religion in All the Pretty Ones.

10. One theme in All the Pretty Ones is the idea that poetry is catharsis. Why might poetry be catharsis for Sexton?

(see the answer keys)

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