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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 sound is described at the beginning of "End of Winter"?

2. Where does the trillium flower describe waking in "Trillilum"?

3. To whom is the speaker of "Wild Iris" speaking?

4. In "Spring Snow," God condemns humanity for not believing in Him, despite His doing what?

5. How does the hawthorn tree observe the couple walking in the garden in "The Hawthorn Tree"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the violets refer to the gardener in "Violets"?

2. What does God tell humanity is the only thing they will hear in the final lines of "End of Summer"?

3. What does God say he gave people in "End of Winter" because that is what they wanted?

4. Who is speaker in each of the "Matins" poems and who does the speaker address?

5. What does Noah say about depressives in "Matins" (#1)?

6. What does the poet struggle with and search for in many of the poems in which she address God?

7. Why is God frustrated in "Clear Morning"?

8. What surprises the snowdrop flower at the end of "Snowdrops"?

9. What does the speaker ask God's forgiveness for in "Matins" (#3)?

10. In "Witchgrass," the witchgrass tells the gardener that it will remain for how long?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose a minimum of 4 poems written from the perspective of a plant or flower and write an essay comparing and contrasting the plant or flowers tone toward the poet/ gardener or humanity as a whole. Note the imagery used to convey tone.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing the poet's search for God's existence. How does she search for God? What does she find? How do her moods change in regards to this search? Use evidence from at least 3 poems to support your analysis.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing the couple portrayed in Wild Iris. Do you feel the couple in the poems which mention John is the same couple in poems like "Presque Isle" which do not mention a name? Why or why not? If not, who do you think the other couple is? Explain your answers using direct evidence from the poems.

(see the answer keys)

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