View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of flowers are in the painting in the poem "A Genre Painting"?

2. What does the speaker say about most poems in the poem "Late Poems"?

3. What lies in the ditch in the poem "Princess Clothing"?

4. What do the children smash in the poem "Frida Kahlo, San Miguel, Ash Wednesday"?

5. Where is Frida Kahlo everywhere in the poem "Frida Kahlo, San Miguel, Ash Wednesday"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the speaker in the poem "Passports" feel about aging?

2. What does the speaker's mother in the poem "Blizzard" fight?

3. In the poem "Aflame," what is happening to the world?

4. What is the purpose of the mushrooms in the poem "September Mushrooms"?

5. Why does the speaker implore people to keep their clothes on in the poem "Everyone Else's Sex Life"?

6. What does the speaker in "Everyone Else's Sex Life" think about everyone else's sex life?

7. Why should one avoid wearing cotton when making recordings, according to the poem "Princess Clothing"?

8. What does Atwood compare "late poems" to in the poem by the same title?

9. What are some contradictions about cicadas in the poem by the same title?

10. In the poem "Salt," what does Atwood warn will happen if one spends too much time in the past?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are some of Atwood's pieces of advice to readers regarding the topics of aging and death? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay exploring the different meanings and feelings Atwood assigns to different textiles in the poem Princess Clothing.

Essay Topic 3

In the poem "Blizzard" in Part I, Atwood refers to her very elderly mother as "fighting the storm." Write an essay exploring what Atwood likely means with this phrase, analyzing how Atwood uses weather symbolically.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 592 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample