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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was stolen in the poem beginning "Frozen moment by a lake"?

2. Where were "we" drawn down from? (From the poem that started "In that year")

3. What did Morrison compare savages to in "Ode to LA"?

4. In the first sentence of the section "Far Arden", what did Morrison say they had an intense visitation of?

5. What did Morrison say that the man, who died in the pool, never saw?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Morrison state happened to the angel man in the poem "Ode to LA"?

2. In the poem that began "Well I'll tell you a story of whiskey", what did Morrison say about how the "whole thing began"?

3. What did Morrison state happened to the savages in the poem "Ode to LA"?

4. How did Morrison describe the girl in "Orange County Suite"?

5. How did Morrison use the imagery of the gardener in both "When radio dark night existed" (from "Far Arden") and "Ode to LA"?

6. In the poem "Power", what did Morrison claim that he could do? (Name three things).

7. What did Morrison state that the "ancient ones" wanted? (In the poem that began "A vast and radiant beach & a cool")

8. In the poem that began "Moonshine night", what were the "young folk" doing?

9. How did Morrison, in "Ode to LA", state that Jones "went out"?

10. How did Morrison state Jones' body looked when the gardener found it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Morrison was very traumatized by the sight of the dead Native American Indians on the side of the road. Choose 3 poems and discuss how this trauma translated into poetry. How did Morrison use the imagery of what he saw on the highway? What impression did this sight leave on Morrison? How did the poem speak to Morrison's feelings about what happened?

Essay Topic 2

Choose a section from "Wilderness" and discuss how the section comes together as a whole. What are the common themes that Morrison spoke about? How did Morrison use imagery to tie individual poems together? How did this help to bring the section together? Did the cohesion of the ideas/themes help to create a deeper understanding of what Morrison was trying to say? Why/Why not?

Essay Topic 3

In the final section of the book "As I Look Back", Morrison claimed that he was stunned by the forgetting of his past. Discuss the relation of Morrison's poetry in sections prior to the last section. How does it seem confusing that Morrison claimed to forget his past, but have a vivid enough memory to write the image-filled poetry that packed all of the previous sections? What could have Morrison been speaking about? Explain using combination of textual evidence and personal understanding.

(see the answer keys)

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