An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

1 How many different kinds of pain are listed in this poem?
3

2

5

4
2 What kind of literary element is "fouled tunes" (line 4)?
metaphor

allegory

simile

comparison
3 What does "wretched" most likely mean in the context of line 6?
physically appealing

lovely and beautiful

foul, disgusting

promiscuous
4 What does Baraka mean by "without shadow, or voice, or meaning" when referring to the "hard flesh" that he touches in Stanza II?
They are actually robots

They are monsters

They are dead bodies

He is interacting with their flesh but has no contact with their souls
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?
The confines of jail

A factory that he cannot escape

He is being held captive by a horde of men

His own flesh, which is made into an object by society
6 What is the first kind of pain listed in this poem ("As now, as all his / flesh hurts me")?
the torture of being stuck inside your body that is not a part of who you actually are

having a skin condition that makes skin-to-skin contact painful

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

jumping into a vat of acid
7 What is the second kind of pain given in this poem ("As when she ran from me into / that forest")?
pain of the unknown

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

not being able to run

pain of abandonment and loss of love
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?
a helicopter

a bird

the mind

the devil
9 Who turns out to be a "self, after all" (Stanza VI)?
God

the "lost soul"

the speaker

the devil
10 What kind of literary element is "whithered yellow flowers" in Stanza V?
simile

hyperbole

metonymy

metaphor
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?
through nature, like trees and a river

through pain

through the separation between soul and body

through poetry
12 What does the speaker *actually* live inside?
his home

New York City

human love

his body
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?
his height and weight

words and emotion

his facial features

where he lives
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?
metal

words

the body

the soul
15 What is left screaming by the end of the poem?
the soul that is trapped inside of its body

the speaker's lover

everyone

the "lost soul"
16 Based on textual evidence, who could be the "lost soul" the speaker refers to in Stanza V?
white people

Jack Kerouac

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?
metaphor

simile

hyperbole

onomatopoeia
18 What kind of literary device is used in "silver, spiraled, whirled" (Stanza V)?
assonance

onomatopoeia

alliteration

metonymy
19 What does "corrupt" most likely mean in the context of line 35?
debased/depraved

complete

healthy

together
20 What is the closest definition of "gale" in the context of Stanza VI?
a courtyard

a windy place

a type of bridge

a forest
21 What kind of associations come up with the actions of "the cold men in their gale" in Stanza VI?
harmony, unity, peace

fear, death, destruction

religion, sacredness, awe

ritual, conformity, collectivity
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?
make him read lots of books and expand his mind

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

kill him

carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?
someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

bodies are very beautiful and often the skin looks like a work of art

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?
flesh, symbolized by metal that is so hot it becomes white

God

the gale that the cold men are living in

the sky
25 Why might have Baraka chosen to repeat "the yes" the times in Stanzas V-VI?
to really emphasize what he is referring to

to bring up different kinds of "yes"

it creates a repetition of rhythm and speeds up the meter towards the climax of the poem; also helps the poem sound more musical

because it sounds cool

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An Agony. As Now study guide contains a biography of Imamu Amiri Baraka, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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