An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

3

5

4

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

simile

allegory

metaphor

comparison
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 monsters

They are actually robots

They are dead bodies
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?

A factory that he cannot escape

The confines of jail

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

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

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

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

pain of abandonment and loss of love

pain of the unknown
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?

a bird

the mind

the devil

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

the speaker

the "lost soul"

the devil

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

metonymy

metaphor

simile

hyperbole
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?

New York City

his body

human love

his home
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

his facial features

where he lives

words and emotion

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

the soul

the body

metal

words
15 What is left screaming by the end of the poem?

the speaker's lover

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

everyone

the "lost soul"
16 Based on textual evidence, who could be the "lost soul" the speaker refers to in Stanza V?

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones

white people

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

Jack Kerouac
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?

hyperbole

onomatopoeia

metaphor

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

metonymy

assonance

alliteration

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

complete

healthy

together

debased/depraved
20 What is the closest definition of "gale" in the context of Stanza VI?

a windy place

a forest

a type of bridge

a courtyard
21 What kind of associations come up with the actions of "the cold men in their gale" in Stanza VI?

ritual, conformity, collectivity

fear, death, destruction

religion, sacredness, awe

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

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

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

God

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?

because it sounds cool

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"

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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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