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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. Baraka's letter to "Evergreen Review" discusses whose rules for writing prose?

2. "The Day Lady Died" is a description of everything O'Hara did the day who died?

3. What is "tea" in reference to in the poem "A Poem for the Tea Heads"?

4. With whom did Brenda Frazer travel to Mexico City in the 1960s?

5. Where is Amiri Baraka from?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Ray Bremser? What is the subject of "Funny Lotus Blues..."?

2. Describe the author and subject of "Poet of the Streets."

3. Describe Tuli Kupferberg and his pieces in The Portable Beat Reader.

4. Who is Gary Snyder? What settings appear in his work?

5. Describe the irony of Peter Orlovsky's "Lepers Cry."

6. What did Ed Sanders experience after reading "Howl"?

7. What is "Highway Ninety-Nine"?

8. What literary and political allusions are in "Sourdough Mountain Lookout"?

9. What similes does Bremser use in the poem "Funny Lotus Blues..."? Why?

10. Who is Philip Whalen? How does Whalen's poem about Sourdough Mountain differ from Snyder's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the author Kenneth Rexroth. For what works was Rexroth known? What examples are in the anthology? What is the poet's impact on the Beat Generation?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the relationship between Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac, as illustrated in their letters. How do the two men regard one another?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the Beat icon Neal Cassady. When was he born and when did he die? What was his family like? How did he meet the other Beats? What was the general opinion of Cassady?

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This section contains 849 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample