An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

3

2

4

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

allegory

simile

comparison

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

lovely and beautiful

foul, disgusting

promiscuous

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 dead bodies

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

They are actually robots

They are monsters
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?

He is being held captive by a horde of men

The confines of jail

A factory that he cannot escape

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

jumping into a vat of acid

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

having a skin condition that makes skin-to-skin contact painful
7 What is the second kind of pain given in this poem ("As when she ran from me into / that forest")?

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

pain of the unknown

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 devil

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

the devil

the "lost soul"

the speaker

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

metaphor

metonymy

hyperbole

simile
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?

New York City

his body

human love

his home
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

where he lives

words and emotion

his height and weight

his facial features
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?

the soul

the body

words

metal
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?

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)?

simile

hyperbole

metaphor

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

alliteration

onomatopoeia

assonance

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

complete

together

debased/depraved

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

a type of bridge

a windy place

a courtyard

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

religion, sacredness, awe

ritual, conformity, collectivity

fear, death, destruction
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

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?

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

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?

the gale that the cold men are living in

God

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

the sky
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"

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 really emphasize what he is referring to

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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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