An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

5

2

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

allegory

comparison

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

promiscuous

lovely and beautiful

foul, disgusting
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

He is interacting with their flesh but has no contact with their souls

They are dead bodies
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?
A factory that he cannot escape

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

He is being held captive by a horde of men

The confines of jail
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

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

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

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

pain of the unknown

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?
a helicopter

the mind

a bird

the devil
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?
hyperbole

metaphor

metonymy

simile
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?
through poetry

through nature, like trees and a river

through pain

through the separation between soul and body
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?
where he lives

his facial features

words and emotion

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

the soul

the body

metal
15 What is left screaming by the end of the poem?
everyone

the "lost soul"

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

the speaker's lover
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

white people

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?
hyperbole

simile

onomatopoeia

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

metonymy

onomatopoeia

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

debased/depraved

complete

healthy
20 What is the closest definition of "gale" in the context of Stanza VI?
a forest

a courtyard

a windy place

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

harmony, unity, peace

ritual, conformity, collectivity
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?
offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

kill him

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

make him read lots of books and expand his mind
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?
his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions

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 gale that the cold men are living in

God

the sky

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?
because it sounds cool

to bring up different kinds of "yes"

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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