An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

2

3

5

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

comparison

simile

metaphor

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

promiscuous

lovely and beautiful

foul, disgusting

physically appealing
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 dead bodies

They are monsters

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

A factory that he cannot escape

The confines of jail

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")?

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

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

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")?

not being able to run

pain of abandonment and loss of love

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

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

the devil

a helicopter

the mind

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

the devil

the "lost soul"

God

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

simile

metonymy

hyperbole

metaphor
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?

human love

his body

his home

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

his facial features

words and emotion

his height and weight

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

words

the body

metal

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

the "lost soul"

the speaker's lover

everyone

the soul that is trapped inside of its body
16 Based on textual evidence, who could be the "lost soul" the speaker refers to in Stanza V?

Jack Kerouac

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

white people
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?

hyperbole

metaphor

onomatopoeia

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

assonance

onomatopoeia

metonymy

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

together

healthy

complete

debased/depraved
20 What is the closest definition of "gale" in the context of Stanza VI?

a forest

a windy place

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?

harmony, unity, peace

ritual, conformity, collectivity

religion, sacredness, awe

fear, death, destruction
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

carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice

kill him
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?

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

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

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)?

the sky

God

the gale that the cold men are living in

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

because it sounds cool

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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