An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

1 How many different kinds of pain are listed in this poem?
5

3

4

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

simile

metaphor

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

promiscuous

foul, disgusting

lovely and beautiful
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 monsters

They are dead bodies

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

They are actually robots
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")?
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 the unknown

not being able to run

pain of abandonment and loss of love

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)?
the mind

a bird

a helicopter

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

God

the devil

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

hyperbole

metonymy

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

through the separation between soul and body

through pain

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

his home

New York City

his body
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?
words and emotion

where he lives

his height and weight

his facial features
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 soul that is trapped inside of its body

the speaker's lover

the "lost soul"

everyone
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

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?
complete

debased/depraved

healthy

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

a forest

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?
fear, death, destruction

ritual, conformity, collectivity

harmony, unity, peace

religion, sacredness, awe
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?
carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice

kill him

make him read lots of books and expand his mind

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?
any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

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)?
God

the gale that the cold men are living in

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 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

to bring up different kinds of "yes"

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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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