Derek Walcott: Collected Poems Quizzes

Derek Walcott: Collected Poems "Names"

By Claire Adler · Last reviewed May 09, 2021

1 What is the race Walcott is referring to in the first stanza of "Names"?

Europeans

Caribbeans

Africans

Asians
2 Why, in "Names," are the palms greater than Versailles?

They will last, while Versailles will be destroyed

They are beautiful, while Versailles is ugly

They were made by nature, while Versailles was made by man

They are alive, while Versailles is made of stone
3 Which of the following genres does Walcott's use of repetition in the first section of "Names" recall?

Folklore

Plays

Philosophy

Novels
4 In "Names," why do the Europeans call a pigsty "little Versailles"

In an attempt to praise the accomplishments of the native people

They really designed it to look like Versailles

In an attempt to glorify their own building efforts

To mock it in comparison to their homeland
5 Which of the following places is NOT named in "Names"?

Madrid

Canton

Benares

Benin
6 Which of the following devices does Walcott use to establish a sense of rhythm in "Names"?

Alliteration

Meter

Repetition

Rhyme
7 Why is the story that Walcott writes in the first section of "Names" insufficient?

He doesn't know what will happen to his people, and there's no point to writing a story without an end

His people cannot remember a past before colonization, so there is no beginning

His story cannot explain why colonizers did what they did

He only has his individual perspective, so its impossible to tell the story of his whole race
8 In the third stanza of the second section of "Names," who does the phrase "Being men, they could not live" (58) refer to?

Europeans

All people

Africans

The speaker's ancestors
9 Which of the following best summarizes the themes of the first and second sections of "Names"?

The first talks about language, and the second talks about the story of the race

The first talks about the story of the race, and the second talks about language

The first talks about colonization and the second talks about decolonization

The first talks about man-made culture and the second talks about nature
10 What is the attitude of the Europeans towards the Caribbean in "Names"?

Curious, exploratory

Indifferent

Mocking and bitter

Desirous and greedy
11 Which of the following literary devices does Walcott employ in lines 8-9 of "Names"?

Allusion

Repetition

Metaphor

Alliteration
12 What is enjambment?

Using the same word to begin multiple lines

Comparing two words using "like" or "as"

Breaking a poetic line in the middle of a phrase

Referring to something small to represent a larger whole
13 Which of the following best describes the rhythm of the second section of "Names"?

Sing-song

Frenetic

Smooth

Fragmented
14 In "Names," what happens to the names the Europeans imposed on the Caribbean landscape?

The Caribbean people continue to use them even after the Europeans begin to forget their homeland

The Europeans force the Caribbean people to change them

The Caribbean people get rid of the European colonizers and invent their own names

The Europeans force the Caribbean people to use them in public even though they have their own names for the land which they use in private
15 Which of the following is NOT an aesthetic function of repetition in "Names"?

It makes the poem easier to memorize

It gives the poem a predictable structure

It makes the poem sound better

It puts emphasis on repeated phrases
16 What is Walcott really talking about in "Names" when he refers to "that moment / when the mind was halved by the horizon" (10-11)?

The moment when the earth was created and the land was split from the sea

The European construction of false dichotomies

The moment when a ship first reaches land

The first Caribbean person killed by a European
17 How do the Africans use repetition against the colonizers in "Names"?

They repeat their own languages in order to remember them

They repeat the colonizer's language in order to claim and transform it

They repeat the colonizer's language in order to mock it

They see Europe as repeating the images of their homeland
18 Which of the following motifs does NOT appear in Names?

Decay

Love

The Sky

Work
19 Why is the phrase "no man unmade them/except the worm" subversive in "Names"?

It suggests that the human race will die off and be replaced by worms

It suggests that men are wormlike

It insults human beings by comparing them to worms

It suggests that the difference between humans and worms is not absolute
20 Which of the following themes is least important to "Names"?

Faith

Loss of Origin

The Continued Presence of History

Relationship with Nature
21 The ending of "Names" most closely parallels which other Derek Walcott poem?

Map of the New World

Love After Love

Becune Point

Ruins of the Great House
22 Which of the following best describes how the Caribbean people respond to the names given to the landscape by Europeans?

They create new names

They transform the connotations of the names

They forget the names

They ignore the names
23 Where was Derek Walcott born?

Jamaica

America

England

St. Lucia
24 When was St. Lucia liberated?

1814

1979

1834

1924
25 "As a fishline sinks, the horizon sinks in the memory" is an example of what literary device?

Simile

Metaphor

Alliteration

Allegory

Essays for Derek Walcott: Collected Poems

Derek Walcott: Collected Poems literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the post-colonial poetry of Derek Walcott.

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