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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 poem is the companion poem to "The Rowing Endeth"?

2. Who is killed the same day that the speaker receives a visitor in "Sweeney"?

3. Who curses the maiden's father in "The Maiden Without Hands"?

4. What is the speaker tortured by in "The Room of My Life"?

5. What does "Doctors" criticize?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sexton view her poetry in relation to her faith?

2. Why does Sexton end The Awful Rowing Toward God with the poem "The Rowing Endeth"?

3. How does Sexton deal with feminism in Transformations?

4. Why might Sexton's poem "Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose)" have special significance for her?

5. What inspired The Awful Rowing Toward God?

6. Why do so many of the poems in The Death Notebooks deal with spirituality and Christianity?

7. Explain Sexton's retelling of the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale in "Making a Living".

8. What is the source material for "The Jesus Papers?" How does Sexton use this source material?

9. What is the main theme of The Book of Folly? Is the theme of The Book of Folly treated the same as in her other work?

10. Explain the premise of Transformations, and explain the title.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role did family play in Anne Sexton's life and work?

Essay Topic 2

What role does feminism and the traditional roles of women play in Sexton's poetry?

Essay Topic 3

Explain how The Awful Rowing Toward God can be considered Sexton's suicide note.

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