To My Dear and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet (1612-72)
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can in no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
Which of the following best describes the way Anne Bradstreet feels about her husband?
A) She loves him but cannot live with him.
B) Her love is so strong that she will continue to love him, even after death.
C) Her love for her husband is unrequited, which causes her pain.
D) She wishes her husband would go away because she does not love him at all.
E) She would love her husband more if they had mines of gold.
According to the poem, what two personal qualities does Bradstreet's husband bring to her?
A) worth and death
B) love and companionship
C) support and dreams
D) freedom and value
E) love and laughter
What is the best synonym for the word recompetence in line 8?
A) compensate
B) owe
C) insult
D) understood
E) explained
Which of the following best summarizes the phrases in line 1-4 that describe Bradstreet's love?
A) Bradstreet had found others who are in as much love as she.
B) Bradstreet is not as happy with her husband as she should be.
C) Bradstreet believes that the love in her marriage is one sided.
D) Bradstreet feels that her love for her husband surpasses the love all other people have.
E) Bradstreet wants a prize for staying with her husband for so long
Blizzard [1981]
Linda Pastan (1932-)
the snow
has forgotten
how to stop
it falls
stuttering
at the glass
a silk windsock
of snow
blowing
under the porch light
tangling trees
which bend
like old women
snarled
in their own
knitting
snow drifts
up to the step
over the doorsill
a pointillist’s blur
the wedding
of form and motion
shaping itself
to the wish of
any object it touches
chairs become
laps of snow
the moon could be
breaking apart
and falling
over the eaves
over the roof
a white bear
shaking its paw
at the window
splitting the hive
of winter
snow stinging
the air
I pull a comforter
of snow
up to my chin
and tumble
to sleep
as the whole
alphabet
of silence
falls out of the
sky
pointillist — an artist who applies paint in small dots that appear to blend together when seen from a distance
Questions for Discussion
1. Read the lines from the poem below.
the snow / has forgotten / how to stop (1-3)
a white bear / shaking its paw / at the window (33-35)
What is the effect of the personification in the lines?
A) It shows how intelligent nature is.
B) It captures the energy of the storm.
C) It shows how friendly the speaker is.
D) It emphasizes the problems the storm creates for people.
2. What is the speaker describing in lines 23–27?
A) how soft the snow is
B) how blinding the snow is
C) how the falling snow varies in intensity
D) how the snow creates an outline of buried things
3. Which of the following best explains the oxymoron “alphabet of silence” in lines 46 and 47?
A) The speaker is speechless but wants to write a poem.
B) The speaker is both tired and restless at the same time.
C) The storm is soundless but communicative to the speaker.
D) The storm is both threatening and fascinating to the speaker.
4. What is the most likely reason the poet does not use punctuation or stanza breaks?
A) to represent the fatigue of the speaker
B) to suggest the storm is like a work of art
C) to represent the continuous action of the storm
D) to emphasize the vivid language in the poem
1. B; 2. D; 3. C; 4. C
You and Me and P.B. Shelley [1942]
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
What is life? Life is stepping down a step or sitting in a chair.
And it isn't there.
Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed the floor.
Life is pulling doors marked PUSH and pushing doors marked PULL and not
noticing notices which say PLEASE USE OTHER DOOR.
It is when you diagnose a sore throat as an unprepared geography lesson
and send your child weeping to school only to be returned an hour
later covered with spots that are indubitable genuine.
Life is a concert with a trombone soloist filling in for Yehudi Menuhin.
But, were it not for frustration and humiliation
I suppose the human race would get ideas above its station.
Somebody once described Shelley as a beautiful and ineffective angel
beating his luminous wings against the void in vain.
Which is certainly describing with might and main.
But probably means that we are all brothers under our pelts.
And that Shelley went around pulling doors marked PUSH and pushing doors
marked PULL just like everybody else.
Yehudi Menuhin — a famous American violinist and conductor
Questions for Discussion
1. In the poem, what does the poet use to define life?
A) a popular fable
B) a dictionary definition
C) a quotation from another poem
D) a series of humorous comparisons
2. Which of the following phrases best summarizes the events described in lines 1–8?
A) familiar nightmares
B) common practical jokes
C) life’s common frustrations
D) life’s dangerous experiences
3. Which of the following sentences best summarizes what is happening in lines 9–14?
A) The speaker mistakenly speaks to a stranger.
B) The speaker asks a friend what to name his child.
C) The speaker ignores his wife and looks in a store window.
D) The speaker argues with his wife about naming their baby.
4. What is the speaker saying about Shelley in lines 24–31?
A) Shelley was a better poet than most.
B) Shelley acted like an angel most of the time.
C) Shelley experienced many tragedies in his life.
D) Shelley experienced the same problems as everyone.
5. Which of the following definitions of station is used in lines 22–23?
A) a social position or rank
B) a stopping place along a route
C) a place where one is assigned to stand
D) a place from which a service is provided
1. D; 2. C; 3. A; 4. D; 5. A
A Rainy Morning [2004]
Ted Kooser (1939-)
A young woman in a wheelchair,
wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain,
is pushing herself through the morning.
You have seen how pianists
sometimes bend forward to strike the keys,
then lift their hands, draw back to rest,
then lean again to strike just as the chord fades.
Such is the way this woman
strikes at the wheels, then lifts her long white fingers,
letting them float, then bends again to strike
just as the chair slows, as if into a silence.
So expertly she plays the chords
of this difficult music she has mastered,
her wet face beautiful in its concentration,
while the wind turns the pages of rain.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the main purpose of lines 1–3?
A) to present an image
B) to provide an opinion
C) to introduce a conflict
D) to create a rhyme scheme
2. Which two things are being compared in the poem?
A) the woman and the poet
B) the woman and the music
C) the woman and the pianist
D) the woman and the weather
3. In line 4, what is the purpose of using the word “You”?
A) to encourage the reader to picture an action
B) to show that the poet is speaking to the woman
C) to show how much the poet admires the woman
D) to persuade the reader to agree with the poet’s views
4. Read lines 12 and 13 from the poem below.
So expertly she plays the chords
of this difficult music she has mastered,
What is the “difficult music” the poet refers to?
A) the rainy weather
B) learning the piano
C) living with a disability
D) the silence of the morning
1. A; 2. C; 3. A; 4. C
The Lanyard [2005]
Billy Collins (1941-)
The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past --
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that's what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
Questions for Discussion
1. In lines 1–4, what do the words “ricocheting” and “bouncing” show about the speaker’s mood?
A) He is feeling restless.
B) He is feeling confident.
C) He is happy for his mother.
D) He is worried about his health.
2. In the poem, what sparks the speaker’s memory of the lanyard?
A) a song he plays on the piano
B) an envelope on the floor
C) a dictionary entry
D) a French novel
3. Read lines 19 and 20 below.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
What do the lines emphasize?
A) the mother’s regret upon receiving the lanyard
B) the speaker’s confusion about the uses of a lanyard
C) the strained relationship between the speaker and his mother
D) the inequality between the mother’s love and the speaker’s gift
4. What is the speaker’s focus in stanzas 4 and 5?
A) his success as a poet
B) his memories of camp
C) his mother’s devotion to raising him
D) his mother’s feelings about the lanyard
1. A; 2. C; 3. D; 4. C
Valentine For Ernest Mann [2003]
Naomi Shihab Nye (1952-)
You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two”
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,
write me a poem,” deserves something in reply.
So I’ll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.
Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn’t understand why she was crying.
“I thought they had such beautiful eyes.”
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he re-invented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.
Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us
we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.
And let me know.
Questions for Discussion
1. As lines 12–13 suggest, how can people find poetry in their everyday lives?
A) by being inspired by what they see around them
B) by surrounding themselves with people who are poets
C) by sleeping longer in order to dream more dreams
D) by refusing to let the shadows distract them
2. Based on the poem, what can the reader infer about the man who gave his wife two skunks?
A) He did not have enough money to buy his wife a real gift.
B) He thought he was giving her a wonderful gift.
C) He was playing a practical joke on his wife.
D) He cared more for the animals than for his wife.
3. What is the effect of the figurative language in lines 23–25?
A) It describes the man in the story.
B) It makes the skunks less appealing.
C) It brings the poems to life.
D) It describes what the skunks did.
4. Which of the following will most likely occur if readers follow the poet’s advice in the last stanza?
A) They will begin to change their opinions of skunks.
B) They will look at people and objects in a different way.
C) They will be more careful about the friends they choose.
D) They will become experts in poetry analysis.
1. A; 2. B; 3. C; 4. B
Negotiations with a Volcano [1995]
Naomi Shihab Nye (1952-)
We will call you "Agua" like the rivers and cool jugs.
We will persuade the clouds to nestle around your neck
so you may sleep late.
We would be happy if you slept forever.
We will tend the slopes we plant, singing the songs
our grandfathers taught us before we inherited their fear.
We will try not to argue among ourselves.
When the widow demands extra flour, we will provide it,
remembering the smell of incense on the day of our Lord.
Please think of us as we are, tiny, with skins that burn easily.
Please notice how we have watered the shrubs around our houses
and transplanted the peppers into neat tin cans.
Forgive any anger we feel toward the earth,
when the rains do not come, or they come too much,
and swallow our corn.
It is not easy to be this small and live in your shadow.
Often while we are eating our evening meal
you cross our rooms like a thief,
touching first the radio and then the loom.
Later our dreams begin catching fire around the edges,
they burn like paper, we wake with our hands full of ash.
How can we live like this?
We need to wake and find our shelves intact,
our children slumbering in their quilts.
We need dreams the shape of lakes,
with mornings in them thick as fish.
Shade us while we cast and hook—
but nothing else, nothing else.
Questions for Discussion
1. How is the title of the poem ironic?
A) The volcano is unfairly blamed.
B) The volcano makes no compromises.
C) The speaker accepts her situation.
D) The speaker learns a valuable lesson.
2. Agua is the Spanish word for water. In line 1, what is the most likely reason the speaker calls the volcano “Agua”?
A) She wants the volcano to remain calm.
B) She thinks the volcano will eventually erode.
C) She believes the volcano is an important symbol.
D) She thinks the volcano provides hope for her people.
3. Based on the second stanza, what is the main cause of the people’s desperation?
A) Their prayers are never answered.
B) Their village is poisoned by selfishness.
C) Their society lacks modern conveniences.
D) Their survival is dependent on the whim of nature.
4. Read lines 25–27 below.
We need dreams the shape of lakes,
with mornings in them thick as fish.
Shade us while we cast and hook—
Based on the lines, which of the following best explains what the people need?
A) time to think
B) plentiful food
C) assurance of a future
D) protection from the weather
1. B; 2. A; 3. D; 4. C
Frederick Douglass [1966]
Robert Hayden (1913-1980)
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
diastole, systole — the beats of the heart
rhetoric — fancy language
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the most likely reason the poet writes one long sentence in lines 1–11?
A) to represent Douglass’s many supporters
B) to emphasize the difficult struggle for liberty
C) to emphasize Douglass’s many accomplishments
D) to represent the complicated inscriptions on the statues
2. In lines 2 and 3, what is the most likely reason the poet compares freedom to earth and air?
A) to show freedom is hard to achieve
B) to suggest freedom is essential to human life
C) to suggest freedom can be overwhelming to some
D) to show freedom can be interpreted in many ways
3. Based on lines 7–9, what effect did Douglass’s past have on him?
A) He wanted to exact revenge on those who hurt him.
B) He became withdrawn from society as he grew older.
C) He became discouraged about the possibility of peace.
D) He wanted to ensure others would not experience what he did.
4. Based on the poem, what is the most important representation of Douglass’s significance?
A) the buildings dedicated to him
B) the tributes given to him in speeches
C) the people who benefit from his work
D) the people who have written about him
5. In which poetic form is "Frederic Douglas" written?
A) Sonnet
B) Elegy
C) Narrative
D) Ode
E) none of the above
1. B; 2. B; 3. D; 4. C; 5. A
Madman's Song [1921]
Elinor Wylie (1885-1928)
Better to see your cheek grown hollow,
Better to see your temple worn,
Than to forget to follow, follow,
After the sound of a silver horn.
Better to bind your brow with willow
And follow, follow until you die,
Than to sleep with your head on a golden pillow,
Nor lift it up when the hunt goes by.
Better to see your cheek grown sallow
And your hair grown gray, so soon, so soon,
Than to forget to hallo, hallo,
After the milk-white hounds of the moon.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the effect of using "silver" to describe the "horn" (line 4)?
A) to imply that the horn is not as valuable as a golden horn
B) to foreshadow any item that may be used in the "hunt" (line 8)
C) to be alliterative with the word "sound"
D) to indicate that the image would be bright
E) to symbolize the beauty of wealth
2. Given in context, the word "hallo" (line 11) probably meant to convey which of the following?
A) a form of greeting
B) another form of the word "hallow" (line 1)
C) an echo
D) a sound that hounds might make such as baying at the moon
E) a variation of the word "halo"
3. The attitude of the author toward the reader is best described as
A) openly hostile
B) gently insistent
C) didactic
D) ambivalent
E) disgusted
4. The author is most probably addressing the poem to
A) someone who has lost touch with what is important
B) someone who is ashamed of her background
C) someone who has become very wealthy
D) someone who is about to die
E) someone who is vain
5. In this poem, the images are meant to convey which of the following?
I. someone who has been committed to an insane asylum
II. someone who has lost passion for life
III. someone who has been filled with passion
A) I only
B) II only
C) II and III only
D) III only
E) I, II, and III
6. The repetition in the poem most likely
A) helps the rhyme scheme
B) emphasizes the main theme
C) entreats the reader
D) reveals the speaker's anger
E) contrasts the laziness of the person addressed
1. C; 2. D; 3. B; 4. A; 5. B; 6. B
The Black Walnut Tree [1972]
Mary Oliver (1935-)
My mother and I debate:
we could sell
the black walnut tree
to the lumberman,
and pay off the mortgage.
Likely some storm anyway
will churn down its dark boughs,
smashing the house. We talk
slowly, two women trying
in a difficult time to be wise.
Roots in the cellar drains,
I say, and she replies
that the leaves are getting heavier
every year, and the fruit
harder to gather away.
But something brighter than money
moves in our blood-an edge
sharp and quick as a trowel
that wants us to dig and sow.
So we talk, but we don't do
anything. That night I dream
of my fathers out of Bohemia
filling the blue fields
of fresh and generous Ohio
with leaves and vines and orchards.
What my mother and I both know
is that we'd crawl with shame
in the emptiness we'd made
in our own and our fathers' backyard.
So the black walnut tree
swings through another year
of sun and leaping winds,
of leaves and bounding fruit,
and, month after month, the whip-
crack of the mortgage.
Questions for Discussion
1. What is the main purpose of lines 1–5 of the poem?
A) to describe the setting
B) to establish the conflict
C) to reveal a family secret
D) to suggest a universal truth
2. In line 1, the speaker states that “My mother and I debate.” She is indicating that they debate
A) with the lumberman.
B) about the fate of their tree.
C) with the mortgage bankers.
D) about the condition of their cellar drains.
3. In lines 27–28, why does the speaker most likely confess that she and her mother would “crawl with shame / in the emptiness we’d made”?
A) They would have lost a piece of their heritage.
B) They would have lowered the value of their home.
C) They would be embarrassed in front of their neighbors.
D) They would regret the loss of shade provided by the tree.
4. Read lines 30–35 of the poem below.
So the black walnut tree
swings through another year
of sun and leaping winds,
of leaves and bounding fruit,
and, month after month, the whipcrack of the mortgage.
What is emphasized by the metaphor in the last two lines?
A) the sacrifices necessary to keep the tree
B) the pleasure the tree brings to the speaker
C) the appearance of the tree during different seasons
D) the income the tree produces for the speaker and her mother
1. B; 2. B; 3. A; 4. A
Mirror [1962]
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful --
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Questions for Discussion
1. Who is the speaker in the poem?
A) a lake
B) a fish
C) a mirror
D) a woman
2. Based on lines 1–5, how is the mirror like the “eye of a little god”?
A) It can control lives.
B) It reveals the truth.
C) It loves all things.
D) It can be cruel.
3. How does the second stanza shift the focus of the poem?
A) by focusing on the emotions of the mirror
B) by focusing on the ways the mirror is like a god
C) by focusing on the interaction between a fish and the woman
D) by focusing on the interaction between the mirror and the woman
4. Read lines 13 and 14 below.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
What is the cause of the woman’s behavior?
A) She is angry at being lied to.
B) She is nervous about being watched.
C) She is saddened by her image in the mirror.
D) She is unhappy about the end of a relationship.
1. C; 2.B; 3. D; 4.C
If [1895]
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
impostors — those who assume false identities for the purpose of deception
knaves — tricky people
sinew — a tendon that connects a muscle to a bone
Questions for Discussion
1. How is the poem mainly organized?
A) through a comparison of several challenges
B) through a progression of violent conflicts
C) through an analysis of several characters
D) through a detailed description of setting
2. Based on the poem, the speaker most likely believes that a fulfilling life requires
A) family.
B) humor.
C) wealth.
D) balance.
3. Read lines 29 and 30 below.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
What do the lines most likely suggest?
A) Success requires achieving a goal before anyone else.
B) Winning is not a factor in living well.
C) Time is not the main obstacle in life.
D) Success requires using time wisely.
4. Which word best describes the tone of the poem?
A) playful
B) apologetic
C) pessimistic
D) motivational
5. What is the purpose of the dashes in line 32?
A) to show a contrasting idea
B) to give a specific definition
C) to provide an added emphasis
D) to indicate the start of a stanza
1. A; 2. D; 3. D; 4. D; 5. C
Keeping Quiet
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
Translated by Alastair Reid
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about...
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
Questions for Discussion
1. In lines 1–10, what is the speaker mainly asking people to do?
A) lead more intellectual lives
B) help others lead productive lives
C) take a pause from their busy lives
D) appreciate the richness of their lives
2. The image in lines 19–20 mainly suggests the possibility of
A) peace.
B) health.
C) wealth.
D) wisdom.
3. What is the main way the last stanza differs from the first stanza?
A) The speaker has lost interest in the topic.
B) The speaker has lost confidence in his ideas.
C) The speaker has separated himself from his audience.
D) The speaker has discovered a secret about the audience.
4. Which line from the poem best emphasizes the irony of mankind’s self-destructive tendencies?
A) “Now we will count to twelve”
B) “we would all be together”
C) “victories with no survivors,”
D) “Life is what it is about;”
1. C; 2. A; 3. C; 4. C
Identity [1973]
Julio Noboa Polanco (1949-)
Let them be as flowers,
always watered, fed, guarded, admired,
but harnessed to a pot of dirt.
I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed,
clinging on cliffs, like an eagle
wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.
To have broken through the surface of stone,
to live, to feel exposed to the madness
of the vast, eternal sky.
To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea,
carrying my soul, my seed,
beyond the mountains of time or into the abyss of the bizarre.
I'd rather be unseen, and if
then shunned by everyone,
than to be a pleasant-smelling flower,
growing in clusters in the fertile valley,
where they're praised, handled, and plucked
by greedy, human hands.
I'd rather smell of musty, green stench
than of sweet, fragrant lilac.
If I could stand alone, strong and free,
I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed.
Questions for Discussion
1. The poem conveys a sense of
A) fear.
B) pride.
C) joy.
D) relief.
1. B
By Accident [2004]
Julia Alvarez (1950-)
Sometimes I think I became the woman
I am by accident, nothing prepared
the way, not a dramatic, wayward aunt,
or moody mother who read Middlemarch,
or godmother who whispered, “You can be
whatever you want!” and by doing so
performed the god-like function of breathing
grit into me. Even my own sisters
were more concerned with hairdryers and boys
than the poems I recited ad nauseum
in our shared bedrooms when the lights were out.
“You’re making me sick!” my sisters would say
as I ranted on, Whitman’s Song of Myself
not the best lullaby, I now admit,
or Chaucer in middle English which caused
many a nightmare fight. “Mami!” they’d called,
“She’s doing it again!” Slap of slippers
in the hall, door clicks, and lights snapped on.
“Why can’t you be considerate for once?”
“I am,” I pleaded, “these are sounds, sweet airs …They give delight and—” “Keep it to yourself!”
my mother said, which more than anything
anyone in my childhood advised
turned me to this paper solitude
where I both keep things secret and broadcast
my heart for all the world to read. And so,
through many drafts, I became the woman
I kept to myself as I lay awake
in that dark bedroom with the lonesome sound
of their soft breathing as my sisters slept.
Questions for Discussion
1. Based on the first stanza in the poem, what is missing from the speaker’s childhood?
A) curiosity
B) discipline
C) imagination
D) encouragement
2. Read lines 17–19 below:
She’s doing it again! Slap of slippers
in the hall, door clicks, and lights snapped on.
Why can’t you be considerate for once?
What is the main effect of the structure of the lines?
A) It suggests a quick succession of events.
B) It emphasizes the poem’s rhyme scheme.
C) It highlights a busy time in the speaker’s life.
D) It enables the speaker to express her emotions.
3. In line 24, to what does the phrase “paper solitude” refer?
A) writing poetry
B) reading books
C) teaching people to write
D) learning about other poets
4. In line 27, the phrase “many drafts” most likely represents
A) the various phases of the speaker’s life.
B) the types of literature the speaker enjoyed.
C) the level of education the speaker achieved.
D) the close relationships in the speaker’s life.
1. D; 2. A; 3. A; 4. A