2. Where is the blame assigned in "The Earth Falls Down"?
(a) Blame is not assigned.
(b) The speaker herself.
(c) The speaker's sister.
(d) The speaker's mother.

3. What is particularly depicted in "God's Backside"?
(a) Hot weather.
(b) Cold weather.
(c) A flood.
(d) A fire.

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

5. What is the first poem in the first part of The Book of Folly?
(a) "The First Poem."
(b) "The Ambition Bird."
(c) "The Assassin."
(d) "The Jesus Papers."

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year was The Death Notebooks published?

2. How many messiahs is Mary pregnant with in "Mary's Song"?

3. What is the first poem in Transformations?

4. Who is pursuing the speaker in "Oh"?

5. Where is the speaker headed in "Rowing"?

Short Essay Questions

1. When was The Awful Rowing Toward God published, and how does that affect the poems in it?

2. Why does Sexton end The Awful Rowing Toward God with the poem "The Rowing Endeth"?

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

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

5. Explain Sexton's revision of "Rapunzel."

6. Why do so many of the poems in The Death Notebooks deal with spirituality and Christianity?

7. How is The Book of Folly set up?

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

9. How does Sexton deal with feminism in Transformations?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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