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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. Why is the speaker hospitalized in "The Break"?
(a) Radiation treatment.
(b) A broken bone.
(c) Mental illness.
(d) Giving birth.

2. What is the subject of "Again and Again and Again"?
(a) A woman scorned.
(b) Calling specific memories to mind.
(c) Returning to a lover.
(d) Longing for a lover.

3. What is the first poem in Part 1 of All My Pretty Ones?
(a) "The Truth the Dead Know."
(b) "Lament."
(c) "All My Pretty Ones."
(d) "The Black Art."

4. What does the speaker pledge in "The Fortress"?
(a) Unconditional love.
(b) Unwavering loyalty.
(c) Eternal friendship.
(d) Lifelong creativity.

5. The poem "You, Doctor Martin" puts the reader where?
(a) In her empty home.
(b) Into the author's surgical suite.
(c) Into Bedlam.
(d) In Taft Cemetery and Memorial Gardens.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is Doctor Martin?

2. What is the subject of "Those Times"?

3. "Loving the Killer" takes place where?

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

5. What is the author's relationship with the subject of "Somewhere in Africa"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was Live or Die received after its publication?

2. What is the significance of "For John, Who Begs Me Not To Enquire Further"?

3. 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?

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

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

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

7. How does Sexton's poetry put the reader in the middle of her life?

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

9. What are the two major themes dealt with in Live or Die, and how are they dealt with?

10. Explain the use of animals in the poem "Loving the Killer."

(see the answer keys)

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