An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

3

4

2

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

allegory

metaphor

comparison

simile
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?

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?

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")?

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

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
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)?

the devil

a bird

a helicopter

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

the "lost soul"

God

the speaker

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

metonymy

simile

metaphor

hyperbole
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?

through poetry

through pain

through the separation between soul and body

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

human love

his home

his body

New York City
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

where he lives

his facial features

his height and weight

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

the body

metal

words

the soul
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?

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)?

simile

metaphor

onomatopoeia

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

metonymy

alliteration

onomatopoeia

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

complete

healthy

debased/depraved

together
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?

harmony, unity, peace

religion, sacredness, awe

fear, death, destruction

ritual, conformity, collectivity
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

carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice

kill him

make him read lots of books and expand his mind
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?

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

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture
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 bring up different kinds of "yes"

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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