An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

By Alessandra Allen · Last reviewed February 01, 2018

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

4

2

5

3
2 What kind of literary element is "fouled tunes" (line 4)?

metaphor

simile

allegory

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

lovely and beautiful

promiscuous

foul, disgusting

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

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

They are dead bodies

They are actually robots

They are monsters
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

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

jumping into a vat of acid
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

pain of the unknown

pain of abandonment and loss of love

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

the devil

the mind

a helicopter

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

the "lost soul"

the speaker

the devil

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

simile

hyperbole

metonymy

metaphor
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?

through nature, like trees and a river

through poetry

through the separation between soul and body

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

his body

his home

human love

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

his height and weight

where he lives

words and emotion

his facial features
14 What has no feeling in Stanza VIII?

metal

the body

the soul

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

the "lost soul"

the speaker's lover

everyone

the soul that is trapped inside of its body
16 Based on textual evidence, who could be the "lost soul" the speaker refers to in Stanza V?

Jack Kerouac

white people

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life
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)?

metonymy

alliteration

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

harmony, unity, peace

fear, death, destruction

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

kill him

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

offer him the tools necessary to have a successful life

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

his flesh has been cut up and deformed through torture

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
24 What "glows as the day with its sun" (Stanza VII)?

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

God

the gale that the cold men are living in

the sky
25 Why might have Baraka chosen to repeat "the yes" the times in Stanzas V-VI?

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 really emphasize what he is referring to

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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