An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

3

4

5

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

simile

metaphor

allegory

comparison
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 dead bodies

They are monsters

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

They are actually robots
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?

He is being held captive by a horde of men

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

The confines of jail

A factory that he cannot escape
6 What is the first kind of pain listed in this poem ("As now, as all his / flesh hurts me")?

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

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

jumping into a vat of acid

the torture of being stuck inside your body that is not a part of who you actually are
7 What is the second kind of pain given in this poem ("As when she ran from me into / that forest")?

pain of abandonment and loss of love

pain of the unknown

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

not being able to run
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?

a helicopter

a bird

the devil

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

God

the devil

the "lost soul"

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

metaphor

hyperbole

metonymy

simile
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?

through poetry

through the separation between soul and body

through nature, like trees and a river

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

his home

his body

human love

New York City
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

where he lives

words and emotion

his facial features

his height and weight
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?

metal

the body

words

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

the "lost soul"

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

the speaker's lover

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

white people

Jack Kerouac

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

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

hyperbole

simile

metaphor

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

alliteration

metonymy

assonance

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

debased/depraved

healthy

together

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

a courtyard

a type of bridge

a forest

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

religion, sacredness, awe

ritual, conformity, collectivity

fear, death, destruction

harmony, unity, peace
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

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

kill him

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

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

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?

the sky

the gale that the cold men are living in

God

flesh, symbolized by metal that is so hot it becomes white
25 Why might have Baraka chosen to repeat "the yes" the times in Stanzas V-VI?

to really emphasize what he is referring to

because it sounds cool

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 bring up different kinds of "yes"

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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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