View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the speaker tortured by in "The Room of My Life"?
(a) The objects around her.
(b) Her own thoughts.
(c) Her own creativity.
(d) The people around her.

2. Who is pursuing the speaker in "Oh"?
(a) Death.
(b) A shadow.
(c) Doubt.
(d) Mental illness.

3. What is the focus of the author's version of "Red Riding Hood"?
(a) The wolf.
(b) The improbability of the outcome.
(c) The relationship between Red Riding Hood and the woodsman.
(d) The grandmother.

4. "Words" is a poem about the ______ of language.
(a) Power.
(b) Inappropriateness.
(c) Beauty.
(d) Inadequacy.

5. What is the last story in Transformations?
(a) "Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose)."
(b) "Happily Ever After."
(c) "The Frog Prince."
(d) "Hansel and Gretel."

Short Answer Questions

1. Who visits the speaker in "Sweeney"?

2. What building is in "Riding the Elevator Into the Sky"?

3. "The Silence" explains the motivation to write as an attempt to remain occupied so that what remains at bay?

4. What kind of poems are the collection "O Ye Tongues"?

5. What poem has the author wondering if she is becoming an antisocial shut-in like the old woman who used to live in her neighborhood as a girl?

Short Essay Questions

1. Compare and contrast "The Death of Fathers" with "Angels of the Love Affair."

2. How does Sexton deal with feminism in Transformations?

3. What does "Mary's Song" say about Sexton?

4. How does Sexton inject herself into the final poem of "The Jesus Papers?" Why does she do this?

5. Why might Sexton's poem "Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose)" have special significance for her?

6. Explain the premise of Transformations, and explain the title.

7. Explain Sexton's retelling of the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale in "Making a Living".

8. What is the purpose of the poem "The Gold Key"?

9. What is the main theme of The Book of Folly? Is the theme of The Book of Folly treated the same as in her other work?

10. Why does The Awful Rowing Toward God begin with the poem "Rowing"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 906 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample