View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "The Ants Are Using Sticks For Walls," ten-year-old girls want to be how old?

2. Donna Leed's untitled poem talks of how she never saw the road between her house and her grandmother's house why?

3. Who wrote the poem "Dedication"?

4. What does the father serve in "Battleground State Park"?

5. In what poem by David Williams were his ancestors were thrown away as if they were nothing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens in the poem "David"? What images are described?

2. What does the author miss in "Song of the Prodigal Son"?

3. What does the author write about her choice to collect these poems in the Introduction?

4. What similes are used to describe water in "Aqueducts"?

5. What is being searched for in "What We Want"? How are the people described?

6. What structural choices did the author make in "What Great Grief Has Made the Empress Mute"? Why?

7. Why did the author's mother throw out his underwear in "Emergency Situation"?

8. How does the father feel in "Taking My Son to His First Day of Kindergarten"? What irony is described?

9. What does the author consider about her grief in "On the Suicide of a Young Boy I Did Not Know"?

10. How are the mother's suicide attempts described in "Lens"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the themes of words and language in "Naming" and "Learning Persian." How do the authors of these poems use personification in language?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the religious allusion and symbolism in "Shedding Skin" and "Invisibility." What do these poems have in common?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the settings and characters in the poems "Insurance" and "She had thought." In what narrative voice is each poem written?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 935 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample