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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the main subject of Everything?

2. What kind of citizen did the poet call the animal in The Measure?

3. What did the animal in The Measure do when the poet tried to save it?

4. What does Oliver think people should pay more attention to in life?

5. What style is Work Sometimes written in?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the hawk do at the end of The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First?

2. What did Mary Oliver compare the hawk in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First to when it was in the grass?

3. In Work Sometimes, what are some of the things that Oliver lists as NOT leading to happiness?

4. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what is personified in the last lines?

5. What does Oliver say she wants to honor with her poem, Everything?

6. What did the turtle in The Measure do when Oliver stopped to help it?

7. What parts of grammar does Oliver say she wants to cherish in Everything, and why?

8. In The Measure, what does Mary Oliver say her watched over life resulted in and why?

9. In Everything, where are some of the places Oliver states she wants to go when she writes?

10. How did Oliver feel at the end of Work Sometimes?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

This book takes place in a few different settings. Describe some of these settings and why you think Oliver chose to place these poems in those settings.

Essay Topic 2

Which of these poems did you relate most to, and why? What about that poem touched you in a personal way?

Essay Topic 3

What are some of the particular animals that were included in these poems, and what did their inclusion do to the tone of the poems?

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