An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

4

3

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

metaphor

comparison

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

lovely and beautiful

physically appealing

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

They are actually robots

They are dead bodies

They are monsters
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?
His own flesh, which is made into an object by society

The confines of jail

A factory that he cannot escape

He is being held captive by a horde of men
6 What is the first kind of pain listed in this poem ("As now, as all his / flesh hurts me")?
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

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")?
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 bird

the devil

the mind

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

God

the "lost soul"

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

hyperbole

simile

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

through poetry

through pain

through the separation between soul and body
12 What does the speaker *actually* live inside?
his home

his body

New York City

human love
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?
where he lives

his height and weight

his facial features

words and emotion
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?
the soul

words

the body

metal
15 What is left screaming by the end of the poem?
the speaker's lover

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

the "lost soul"

everyone
16 Based on textual evidence, who could be the "lost soul" the speaker refers to in Stanza V?
the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones

Jack Kerouac

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

simile

hyperbole

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

assonance

metonymy

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

healthy

debased/depraved

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

a type of bridge

a windy place

a forest
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

ritual, conformity, collectivity

harmony, unity, peace
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

make him read lots of books and expand his mind

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

kill him
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

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

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?
God

the sky

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?
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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