An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

4

3

2

5
2 What kind of literary element is "fouled tunes" (line 4)?

simile

allegory

metaphor

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

foul, disgusting

lovely and beautiful

physically appealing

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

His own flesh, which is made into an object by society

He is being held captive by a horde of men

A factory that he cannot escape
6 What is the first kind of pain listed in this poem ("As now, as all his / flesh hurts me")?

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

jumping into a vat of acid

the torture of being stuck inside your body that is not a part of who you actually are

being touched with someone that has very rough hands
7 What is the second kind of pain given in this poem ("As when she ran from me into / that forest")?

pain of abandonment and loss of love

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

not being able to run

pain of the unknown
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?

the mind

a helicopter

a bird

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

the speaker

the devil

the "lost soul"

God
10 What kind of literary element is "whithered yellow flowers" in Stanza V?

metonymy

metaphor

hyperbole

simile
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?

through pain

through nature, like trees and a river

through the separation between soul and body

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

his home

his body

human love

New York City
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

his facial features

where he lives

words and emotion

his height and weight
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?

the soul

the body

metal

words
15 What is left screaming by the end of the poem?

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

everyone

the "lost soul"

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

white people

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones

Jack Kerouac
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?

metaphor

hyperbole

onomatopoeia

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

onomatopoeia

assonance

alliteration

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

healthy

debased/depraved

together

complete
20 What is the closest definition of "gale" in the context of Stanza VI?

a windy place

a forest

a courtyard

a type of bridge
21 What kind of associations come up with the actions of "the cold men in their gale" in Stanza VI?

religion, sacredness, awe

fear, death, destruction

ritual, conformity, collectivity

harmony, unity, peace
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?

kill him

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

make him read lots of books and expand his mind

carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

bodies are very beautiful and often the skin looks like a work of art
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?

the sky

flesh, symbolized by metal that is so hot it becomes white

God

the gale that the cold men are living in
25 Why might have Baraka chosen to repeat "the yes" the times in Stanzas V-VI?

to bring up different kinds of "yes"

because it sounds cool

to really emphasize what he is referring to

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

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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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