An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

1 How many different kinds of pain are listed in this poem?
4

5

3

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

comparison

simile

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

promiscuous

physically appealing

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

They are dead bodies

They are monsters

They are actually robots
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?
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

The confines of jail
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

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

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

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")?
pain of abandonment and loss of love

pain of the unknown

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

not being able to run
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 speaker

the devil

God

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

hyperbole

metaphor

metonymy
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?
through pain

through the separation between soul and body

through poetry

through nature, like trees and a river
12 What does the speaker *actually* live inside?
his home

human love

his body

New York City
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

metal

the soul

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

the speaker's lover

the "lost soul"

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

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

white people

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?
metaphor

onomatopoeia

hyperbole

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

assonance

onomatopoeia

alliteration
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 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

ritual, conformity, collectivity

harmony, unity, peace

fear, death, destruction
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

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

kill him

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

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions

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

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?
the sky

God

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

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?
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

to bring up different kinds of "yes"

because it sounds cool

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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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