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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 4: "Ode to the Beloved's Hips" through "The First Water Is the Body".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is distinctive about the structure of "Blood-Light"?
(a) It uses ballad meter.
(b) It is the only rhymed poem in the collection.
(c) If compressed, the lines would form a free-verse version of a sonnet.
(d) It is grouped into two-line stanzas.

2. In "Asterion's Lament," to what is the beloved's body compared besides water?
(a) A palace.
(b) A garden.
(c) A maze.
(d) A desert.

3. In "Skin-Light," the speaker refers to "violet, biliruben/ bloom." What is she describing?
(a) Bruises.
(b) Stones.
(c) Flowers.
(d) Painting.

4. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," what is the antecedent of the word "they" in the opening line "Haven't they moved like rivers?" (7)?
(a) The powers of Prometheus.
(b) The beloved's hands.
(c) The speaker's hands.
(d) The powers of the Christian God.

5. In "Like Church," what does the speaker compare her relationship with the church to?
(a) The work required to tend a garden successfully.
(b) Her intimate relationship with a White lover.
(c) Her relationship with her family.
(d) America's history of oppression.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," what does "the seven days of your body" allude to (7)?

2. What does the title "The Mustangs" refer to?

3. In "From the Desire Field," what other poet is alluded to?

4. In "These Hands, If Not Gods," the speaker makes a reference to the "hundred-handed ones." Who were these figures?

5. In "From the Desire Field," what does the line "verde, te quiero verde" literally translate to (12)?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 330 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample