An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

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

3

5

2

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

allegory

metaphor

comparison

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

promiscuous

foul, disgusting

physically appealing

lovely and beautiful
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 actually robots

They are monsters

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

A factory that he cannot escape

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

being touched with someone that has very rough hands

jumping into a vat of acid

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

not being able to run

worry that she will be eaten by monsters in the forest

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

a helicopter

a bird

the mind

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

the speaker

the "lost soul"

God

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

simile

metonymy

hyperbole

metaphor
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?

through the separation between soul and body

through poetry

through pain

through nature, like trees and a river
12 What does the speaker *actually* live inside?

his home

human love

New York City

his body
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?

words and emotion

his facial features

his height and weight

where he lives
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?

the soul

the body

words

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

the "lost soul"

the speaker's lover

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

everyone
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)?

simile

metaphor

onomatopoeia

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

assonance

onomatopoeia

metonymy

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

healthy

debased/depraved

together

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

a forest

a windy place

a type of bridge

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

ritual, conformity, collectivity

religion, sacredness, awe

fear, death, destruction

harmony, unity, peace
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

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

kill him

make him read lots of books and expand his mind
23 Why does the speaker call flesh "an abstraction" is Stanza III?

someone's flesh is often obstructed by clothing

any perception of the body is influenced by societal conventions

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

bodies are very beautiful and often the skin looks like a work of art
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?

the gale that the cold men are living in

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

the sky

God
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 bring up different kinds of "yes"

because it sounds cool

to really emphasize what he is referring to

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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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