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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. In "Snake-Light," what does the speaker dream about?

2. In "It Was the Animals," what does the speaker's brother tell her she can read about on the wood he has found?

3. In "My Brother, My Wound," to what does the speaker's brother compare her wound?

4. In "Snake-Light," what tradition does the speaker critique?

5. In "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," what American poet's death is mentioned?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Snake-Light," what does the speaker say happens when the word "Hikwiir" is said aloud (84)?

2. In "It Was the Animals," who comes to the speaker's house, and what is that person carrying?

3. In "I, Minotaur," to what plant does the speaker compare herself, and why?

4. In "Waist and Sway," what temptation is the speaker trying to resist, and what is the outcome?

5. In the opening of "Snake-Light," what does the speaker literally see in the desert, and to what does she compare it?

6. In "Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball," what choice does the speaker say the Creator gave Indian peoples, and who chose each option?

7. In "The First Water Is the Body," what specific concern does the speaker have about the Colorado River?

8. In "The First Water Is the Body," what point does the speaker make about the limitations of words?

9. What two conceits are central to "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert"?

10. In "exhibits from The American Water Museum," what is depicted in the "Photograph from a South American newspaper," and what is its significance?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose a poem we did not specifically discuss in class. Write an explication of this poem, explaining how its techniques create its meaning. At least some of your evidence should be quoted, and if you require outside sources to understand allusions, etc., be sure to cite your sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you explore the motif of "thirst" in Postcolonial Love Poem. What is the source of the speaker's thirst, and how does she seek to quench that thirst? Provide support from at least five of the collection's poems.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the use of religious language, iconography, and concepts in Postcolonial Love Poem. Use textual evidence from at least five separate poems to support your claims.

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