Fever 103 Quizzes

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Fever 103 Quiz

1 Who or what is Cerberus?

Son of the witch Sycorax in Shakespeare’s The Tempest

The multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld

The brightest star in the night sky

The first son of Adam and Eve
2 What is an “aguey tendon”?

Blood-red muscle

Feverish muscle

Anguished tendency

Broken sinew
3 What does it mean that the smelled of a snuffed candle is “indelible”?

It is delightful and appetizing

It is indistinct and hard to recognize

It is recognizable and long-lasting

It is distasteful and unappetizing
4 What does the “smoke” which rolls from the speaker “like Isadora’s scarves” signify?

Fear

Rebirth

Death

An embrace
5 In regards to the “Hothouse baby” in the seventh stanza, what is one way of interpreting the word “hothouse” here?

Incubated

Raised in a brothel

Red-cheeked

Resuscitated
6 How might we interpret the “you” in the line “Your body / Hurts me as the world hurts God”?

As signifying her husband, whose sexual infidelity betrayed their marriage

As signifying the devil, who is putting her through hellish suffering

As signifying Cerberus, who is incapable of cleansing her of sin

As signifying her own body, whose illness betrayed her
7 Why is it significant that she can be “a huge camellia” “all by [herself]”?

Because camellias are difficult to grow and require much nourishment

Because camellias always grow in pairs on the same stem

Because “huge” camellias are usually the “male” flowers

Because camellias signify the union or commitment between two people
8 What is acetylene, as in the line “I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin”?

A drug used to treat mild to moderate pain and aches

A salt formed by the combination of acetic acid with a base

C2H2, a colorless and flammable gas unstable in its pure form

A psychedelic that causes hallucinations
9 What are cherubim?

Small red stone fruits

Supernatural creatures in early Islamic mythology

Winged angels which attend on God, often depicted as chubby winged children

Demons featured in the 1940 film Fantasia
10 How many of the poems included in Plath’s posthumously published book Ariel were written, like this one, in the month of October 1962?

41

26

12

7
11 What is one way that Plath defies the usual definition of a “confessional” poet?

The vivid fictive imagination of many of her poems

The frequent reference to an ambiguous “you”

The fact that she was a young woman

The frequent engagement with historic and political metaphor in her poetry
12 Which of the following images in the poem subtly imply the physical fragility of the feverish speaker?

"I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin / Attended by roses”

“Water, water make me retch”

“I am a lantern— / My head a moon / Of Japanese paper”

All of the answers
13 Which meaning(s) of “flush” is or are operative in the line “Glowing and coming and going, flush on flush”?

Tinged red; blushing

Sudden and abundant growth

All of the answers

A transitory sensation of extreme heat
14 Which of the following lines portray a volatile, unstable constitution of the self?

"All by myself I am a huge camellia / Glowing and coming and going"

"(My selves dissolving, old whore petticoats)"

All of the answers

"I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin"
15 Which of the following pairs of lines marks the biggest transition in the poem?

All of the answers

“Water, water make me retch. / I am too pure for you or anyone.”

“The sin. The sin. / Darling, all night”

“flush on flush. / I think I am going up,”
16 Which of the following seem to be prerequisites for “rising” in this poem?

Suffering

All of the answers

Emptiness

Purity
17 Which of the following is NOT a tone this poem takes?

Frightened

Resigned

Amazed

Condemnatory
18 Which spiritual tradition was Sylvia Plath immersed in reading about, though not an adherent of, in her later years of life?

Catholicism

Daoism

Hinduism

Protestantism
19 In which context of Sylvia Plath’s life was this poem written?

Sick, on her honeymoon in Ireland

Sick, recently separated, a single parent to two children in London

Healthy, living alone in an attic room in London

Sick, recently separated and returned to live with friends in Boston
20 When and where was this poem first published?

In 1963 in the magazine Poetry, months after her death

In a reprint of Ariel in the 1990s when a number of lost poems were discovered

In 1962 in the magazine Poetry, weeks before her death

In 1965 in Ariel, years after her death
21 Which feeling is most frequently associated with sexuality in this poem?

Hatred

Betrayal

Desire

Nostalgia
22 Which pink flower doesn't appear in this poem?

Roses

Camellias

Orchids

Tulips
23 Which color isn’t overtly named in the poem, but remains the most prominent in its visual landscape?

Red

Pink

White

Yellow
24 Which mythological tradition isn’t referenced in this poem?

Christian mythology

Hindu mythology

Greek mythology

None of the answers
25 Which of the following is the best example of alliteration?

Love, love, the low smokes roll

I have been flickering, off, on, off, on

My head a moon / Of Japanese paper

Attended by roses, / By kisses, by cherubim

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