Fever 103 Quizzes

Fever 103 Quiz

1 Who or what is Cerberus?

The first son of Adam and Eve

The brightest star in the night sky

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

Son of the witch Sycorax in Shakespeare’s The Tempest
2 What is an “aguey tendon”?

Broken sinew

Blood-red muscle

Anguished tendency

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

It is distasteful and unappetizing

It is indistinct and hard to recognize

It is delightful and appetizing

It is recognizable and long-lasting
4 What does the “smoke” which rolls from the speaker “like Isadora’s scarves” signify?

Fear

Death

An embrace

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

Resuscitated

Red-cheeked

Incubated

Raised in a brothel
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 Cerberus, who is incapable of cleansing her of sin

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

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 “huge” camellias are usually the “male” flowers

Because camellias signify the union or commitment between two people

Because camellias always grow in pairs on the same stem

Because camellias are difficult to grow and require much nourishment
8 What is acetylene, as in the line “I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin”?

A psychedelic that causes hallucinations

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

A drug used to treat mild to moderate pain and aches

C2H2, a colorless and flammable gas unstable in its pure form
9 What are cherubim?

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

Small red stone fruits

Demons featured in the 1940 film Fantasia

Supernatural creatures in early Islamic mythology
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?

7

12

26

41
11 What is one way that Plath defies the usual definition of a “confessional” poet?

The fact that she was a young woman

The frequent reference to an ambiguous “you”

The frequent engagement with historic and political metaphor in her poetry

The vivid fictive imagination of many of her poems
12 Which of the following images in the poem subtly imply the physical fragility of the feverish speaker?

All of the answers

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

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

“Water, water make me retch”
13 Which meaning(s) of “flush” is or are operative in the line “Glowing and coming and going, flush on flush”?

All of the answers

Sudden and abundant growth

Tinged red; blushing

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

"(My selves dissolving, old whore petticoats)"

"I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin"

All of the answers

"All by myself I am a huge camellia / Glowing and coming and going"
15 Which of the following pairs of lines marks the biggest transition in the poem?

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

“flush on flush. / I think I am going up,”

All of the answers

“The sin. The sin. / Darling, all night”
16 Which of the following seem to be prerequisites for “rising” in this poem?

All of the answers

Suffering

Purity

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

Amazed

Frightened

Condemnatory

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

Catholicism

Daoism

Protestantism

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

In 1963 in the magazine Poetry, months after her death

In 1965 in Ariel, years after her death

In 1962 in the magazine Poetry, weeks before her death
21 Which feeling is most frequently associated with sexuality in this poem?

Betrayal

Desire

Hatred

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

Roses

Tulips

Orchids

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

White

Pink

Yellow

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

Greek mythology

Christian mythology

None of the answers

Hindu mythology
25 Which of the following is the best example of alliteration?

Attended by roses, / By kisses, by cherubim

My head a moon / Of Japanese paper

Love, love, the low smokes roll

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

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