Derek Walcott: Collected Poems Quizzes

Derek Walcott: Collected Poems "Names"

By Claire Adler · Last reviewed May 09, 2021

1 What is the race Walcott is referring to in the first stanza of "Names"?

Asians

Europeans

Africans

Caribbeans
2 Why, in "Names," are the palms greater than Versailles?

They are beautiful, while Versailles is ugly

They were made by nature, while Versailles was made by man

They will last, while Versailles will be destroyed

They are alive, while Versailles is made of stone
3 Which of the following genres does Walcott's use of repetition in the first section of "Names" recall?

Novels

Plays

Folklore

Philosophy
4 In "Names," why do the Europeans call a pigsty "little Versailles"

To mock it in comparison to their homeland

In an attempt to glorify their own building efforts

In an attempt to praise the accomplishments of the native people

They really designed it to look like Versailles
5 Which of the following places is NOT named in "Names"?

Benares

Madrid

Canton

Benin
6 Which of the following devices does Walcott use to establish a sense of rhythm in "Names"?

Rhyme

Repetition

Alliteration

Meter
7 Why is the story that Walcott writes in the first section of "Names" insufficient?

He only has his individual perspective, so its impossible to tell the story of his whole race

He doesn't know what will happen to his people, and there's no point to writing a story without an end

His story cannot explain why colonizers did what they did

His people cannot remember a past before colonization, so there is no beginning
8 In the third stanza of the second section of "Names," who does the phrase "Being men, they could not live" (58) refer to?

The speaker's ancestors

Africans

Europeans

All people
9 Which of the following best summarizes the themes of the first and second sections of "Names"?

The first talks about language, and the second talks about the story of the race

The first talks about the story of the race, and the second talks about language

The first talks about colonization and the second talks about decolonization

The first talks about man-made culture and the second talks about nature
10 What is the attitude of the Europeans towards the Caribbean in "Names"?

Curious, exploratory

Desirous and greedy

Mocking and bitter

Indifferent
11 Which of the following literary devices does Walcott employ in lines 8-9 of "Names"?

Repetition

Allusion

Alliteration

Metaphor
12 What is enjambment?

Breaking a poetic line in the middle of a phrase

Referring to something small to represent a larger whole

Comparing two words using "like" or "as"

Using the same word to begin multiple lines
13 Which of the following best describes the rhythm of the second section of "Names"?

Smooth

Fragmented

Sing-song

Frenetic
14 In "Names," what happens to the names the Europeans imposed on the Caribbean landscape?

The Europeans force the Caribbean people to use them in public even though they have their own names for the land which they use in private

The Caribbean people get rid of the European colonizers and invent their own names

The Europeans force the Caribbean people to change them

The Caribbean people continue to use them even after the Europeans begin to forget their homeland
15 Which of the following is NOT an aesthetic function of repetition in "Names"?

It gives the poem a predictable structure

It makes the poem sound better

It puts emphasis on repeated phrases

It makes the poem easier to memorize
16 What is Walcott really talking about in "Names" when he refers to "that moment / when the mind was halved by the horizon" (10-11)?

The European construction of false dichotomies

The moment when the earth was created and the land was split from the sea

The first Caribbean person killed by a European

The moment when a ship first reaches land
17 How do the Africans use repetition against the colonizers in "Names"?

They repeat their own languages in order to remember them

They see Europe as repeating the images of their homeland

They repeat the colonizer's language in order to claim and transform it

They repeat the colonizer's language in order to mock it
18 Which of the following motifs does NOT appear in Names?

Decay

Love

Work

The Sky
19 Why is the phrase "no man unmade them/except the worm" subversive in "Names"?

It suggests that the difference between humans and worms is not absolute

It suggests that men are wormlike

It suggests that the human race will die off and be replaced by worms

It insults human beings by comparing them to worms
20 Which of the following themes is least important to "Names"?

Relationship with Nature

The Continued Presence of History

Faith

Loss of Origin
21 The ending of "Names" most closely parallels which other Derek Walcott poem?

Becune Point

Love After Love

Map of the New World

Ruins of the Great House
22 Which of the following best describes how the Caribbean people respond to the names given to the landscape by Europeans?

They create new names

They forget the names

They ignore the names

They transform the connotations of the names
23 Where was Derek Walcott born?

America

St. Lucia

Jamaica

England
24 When was St. Lucia liberated?

1814

1924

1834

1979
25 "As a fishline sinks, the horizon sinks in the memory" is an example of what literary device?

Allegory

Metaphor

Simile

Alliteration

Critically explore the use of intertextuality or ‘historical / textual-metaphors’ to re-scribe personal and social histories in the following poem by Derek Walcott: “The Sea is History"

Sorry, this is only a short answer space.

Asked by Nompumelelo N #1309024

Answered by Aslan on 5/25/2023 7:04 PM

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DEREK WALCOTT POETRY

Many of Walcott’s poems are extremely concerned not only with nature, but with the difficulty of describing nature as a poet. “Map of a New World” and “Becune Point” are explicitly about this problem. In both poems, it is difficult to live an...

Asked by Prim C #1164808

Answered by jill d #170087 on 7/23/2021 12:27 PM

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A BEND IN THE RIVER AS A PROCOLONIAL OR POSTCOLONIAL NOVEL.

Check this out, you might have to put it directly in your address browser.

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_narrative_theory/summary/v040/40.2.johnson.html

Asked by barish r #363751

Answered by Aslan on 3/29/2014 11:47 PM

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