An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

1 How many different kinds of pain are listed in this poem?

4

2

3

5
2 What kind of literary element is "fouled tunes" (line 4)?

comparison

simile

metaphor

allegory
3 What does "wretched" most likely mean in the context of line 6?

lovely and beautiful

physically appealing

promiscuous

foul, disgusting
4 What does Baraka mean by "without shadow, or voice, or meaning" when referring to the "hard flesh" that he touches in Stanza II?

They are actually robots

He is interacting with their flesh but has no contact with their souls

They are monsters

They are dead bodies
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?

His own flesh, which is made into an object by society

A factory that he cannot escape

He is being held captive by a horde of men

The confines of jail
6 What is the first kind of pain listed in this poem ("As now, as all his / flesh hurts me")?

the torture of being stuck inside your body that is not a part of who you actually are

jumping into a vat of acid

having a skin condition that makes skin-to-skin contact painful

being touched with someone that has very rough hands
7 What is the second kind of pain given in this poem ("As when she ran from me into / that forest")?

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

not being able to run

pain of abandonment and loss of love

pain of the unknown
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?

the devil

a helicopter

a bird

the mind
9 Who turns out to be a "self, after all" (Stanza VI)?

the speaker

the devil

God

the "lost soul"
10 What kind of literary element is "whithered yellow flowers" in Stanza V?

simile

hyperbole

metaphor

metonymy
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?

through the separation between soul and body

through nature, like trees and a river

through poetry

through pain
12 What does the speaker *actually* live inside?

New York City

his body

human love

his home
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

where he lives

his height and weight

his facial features

words and emotion
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?

metal

the soul

words

the body
15 What is left screaming by the end of the poem?

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

the "lost soul"

everyone

the speaker's lover
16 Based on textual evidence, who could be the "lost soul" the speaker refers to in Stanza V?

white people

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

Jack Kerouac

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?

metaphor

simile

onomatopoeia

hyperbole
18 What kind of literary device is used in "silver, spiraled, whirled" (Stanza V)?

onomatopoeia

alliteration

metonymy

assonance
19 What does "corrupt" most likely mean in the context of line 35?

healthy

debased/depraved

complete

together
20 What is the closest definition of "gale" in the context of Stanza VI?

a type of bridge

a windy place

a forest

a courtyard
21 What kind of associations come up with the actions of "the cold men in their gale" in Stanza VI?

fear, death, destruction

religion, sacredness, awe

harmony, unity, peace

ritual, conformity, collectivity
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?

make him read lots of books and expand his mind

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice

kill him
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?

bodies are very beautiful and often the skin looks like a work of art

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?

the sky

flesh, symbolized by metal that is so hot it becomes white

God

the gale that the cold men are living in
25 Why might have Baraka chosen to repeat "the yes" the times in Stanzas V-VI?

it creates a repetition of rhythm and speeds up the meter towards the climax of the poem; also helps the poem sound more musical

to really emphasize what he is referring to

to bring up different kinds of "yes"

because it sounds cool

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An Agony. As Now study guide contains a biography of Imamu Amiri Baraka, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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