An Agony. As Now Quizzes

An Agony. As Now Quiz

1 How many different kinds of pain are listed in this poem?
2

5

4

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

comparison

simile

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

foul, disgusting

promiscuous

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?
They are dead bodies

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

They are actually robots

They are monsters
5 What traps the speaker of the poem?
His own flesh, which is made into an object by society

He is being held captive by a horde of men

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")?
jumping into a vat of acid

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

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 the unknown

pain of abandonment and loss of love
8 What goes "higher than even old men thought / God would be" (Stanza V)?
the devil

a bird

a helicopter

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

God

the "lost soul"

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

hyperbole

metaphor

simile
11 How is beauty practiced in Stanza V?
through nature, like trees and a river

through pain

through poetry

through the separation between soul and body
12 What does the speaker *actually* live inside?
New York City

his body

his home

human love
13 What can the speaker be recognized as?
his height and weight

his facial features

words and emotion

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

metal

words

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

the soul that is trapped inside of its body

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

Baraka's first wife, Hattie Jones

the person the speaker abandoned in a past life

Jack Kerouac
17 What kind of literary element is "blind" (Stanza V)?
simile

onomatopoeia

hyperbole

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

alliteration

onomatopoeia

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

complete

debased/depraved

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

a type of bridge

a windy place

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

fear, death, destruction

religion, sacredness, awe

harmony, unity, peace
22 In other words, what do the speaker's enemies do to him in Stanza III?
carry him in a ritualistic procession as if preparing him for sacrifice

kill him

make him read lots of books and expand his mind

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

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

God

the sky

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 bring up different kinds of "yes"

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

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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