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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. What myth does the author rethink in "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph"?
(a) Hercules.
(b) Odysseus.
(c) Icarus.
(d) Persephone.

2. Who is "For the Year of the Insane" directed to?
(a) Sylvia Plath.
(b) John Hughes.
(c) Ted Hughes.
(d) The Virgin Mary.

3. What is the sister poem to "The Double Image"?
(a) "A Story For Rose On the Midnight Flight To Boston."
(b) "Torn Down From Glory Daily."
(c) "The Division of Parts."
(d) "The Moss of His Skin."

4. "In Celebration of My Uterus" celebrates what?
(a) Femininity.
(b) Pregnancy.
(c) Sexual gratification.
(d) Passion.

5. How many sections are in "The Operation"?
(a) Two.
(b) Four.
(c) One.
(d) Three.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the title of the author's first book of poetry?

2. "Torn Down From Glory Daily" draws a parallel between animal hunger and ______.

3. What part of the speaker's body is personified in "The Touch"?

4. Where does the woman in "Moon Song, Woman Song" live?

5. What is the main focus of Part 1 of All My Pretty Ones?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the final poem of the book?

2. 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?

3. Explain Sexton's retelling of the Icarus myth in "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph."

4. Explain the poem "Suicide Note."

5. What does the preface of Live or Die reveal about the poems in it?

6. Give at least one example of Sexton's use of humor in Love Poems.

7. Compare and contrast "The Interrogation of the Man of Many Hearts" with "For My Lover, Returning to His Wife."

8. How does Sexton use her poetry as a form of therapy in Live or Die?

9. What makes To Bedlam and Part Way Back autobiographical?

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

(see the answer keys)

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