Sylvia Plath: Poems Quizzes

Sylvia Plath: Poems Quiz 1

By Kristen Osborne · Edited by S.R. Cedars · Last reviewed January 04, 2012

1 As reflected in her poetry, Sylvia Plath's most tortured relationship was with her:

aunt

father

brother

mother
2 Plath attended and taught at:

Smith College

Harvard University

Boston College

Columbia University
3 Plath's only novel is entitled:

Nick and the Candlestick

Ariel

The Bell Jar

The Colossus
4 Plath died from:

a car crash

accidental drowning

suicide

illness
5 Plath's poetry is considered part of which movement?

Romanticism

Modernism

Confessional poetry

Realism
6 Which fairy tale does Plath adapt in one of her most famous juvenilia poems?

Snow White

Cinderella

Bluebeard

The Little Mermaid
7 What frightens the fairytale heroine in the poem named after her?

Fire

A witch

An ogre

The clock
8 "Full Fathom Five" compares Plath's father to a:

fire god

sea god

god of the underworld

god of war
9 What natural danger is Plath's father compared to in "Full Fathom Five"?

An abyss

A thundercloud

Ice-mountains

A huge cliff
10 At the end of "Full Fathom Five," Plath's father seems to be:

alive

killed by Plath

exiled

dead and buried
11 "Full Fathom Five" alludes to which Shakespearean play?

Othello

Julius Caesar

Hamlet

The Tempest
12 Which character speaks the words "full fathom five" in Shakespeare's play?

Prospero

Iago

Hamlet

Ariel
13 "Metaphors" refers to a(n) _________ woman.

elderly

pregnant

sick

beautiful
14 In "Metaphors," Plath compares herself to all of the following EXCEPT:

an elephant

a melon

a pig

a bag of green apples
15 At the end of "Metaphors," Plath compares her pregnancy to:

a natural disaster

a miracle

a plague

a train that she can't get off of
16 "The Colossus" is assumed to be about:

Ted Hughes

Nicholas Hughes

Robert Lowell

Otto Plath
17 The sounds that the colossus emits are compared to:

poetry

an explosion

an opera

a barnyard
18 Plath wonders whether the colossus considers himself:

an oracle

a god

a devil

a savior
19 What work of Greek literature is mentioned in "The Colossus"?

The Oresteia

The Iliad

Oedipus Rex

Antigone
20 Where does the poet spend the night in "The Colossus"?

In the statue's ear

In the statue's stomach

In the statue's mouth

In the statue's hand
21 At the end of "The Colossus," the speaker says she no longer waits to hear:

a boat

a child's cry

an explosion

a voice
22 In "A Life," the speaker first describes:

a pregnant woman

a Nazi

a painting

a statue
23 The woman in "A Life" is speaking from:

a hospital room

a cabin

a foggy field

a car
24 In "A Life," the speaker compares to the future to:

an elephant

a sheep

a seagull

a cat
25 In "A Life," the speaker can be described as:

excited and jumpy

quiet and detached

angry

guilty