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

Africans

Caribbeans

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

They will last, while Versailles will be destroyed

They are alive, while Versailles is made of stone

They are beautiful, while Versailles is ugly

They were made by nature, while Versailles was made by man
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 glorify their own building efforts

In an attempt to praise the accomplishments of the native people

They really designed it to look like Versailles

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

Benin

Benares

Madrid

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

Rhyme

Repetition

Alliteration

Meter
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?

All people

The speaker's ancestors

Africans

Europeans
9 Which of the following best summarizes the themes of the first and second sections of "Names"?

The first talks about colonization and the second talks about decolonization

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

Mocking and bitter

Curious, exploratory

Indifferent

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

Allusion

Metaphor

Repetition

Alliteration
12 What is enjambment?

Comparing two words using "like" or "as"

Referring to something small to represent a larger whole

Using the same word to begin multiple lines

Breaking a poetic line in the middle of a phrase
13 Which of the following best describes the rhythm of the second section of "Names"?

Frenetic

Fragmented

Smooth

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

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

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

The Europeans force the Caribbean people to change them

The Caribbean people continue to use them even after the Europeans begin to forget their homeland
15 Which of the following is NOT an aesthetic function of repetition in "Names"?

It makes the poem sound better

It puts emphasis on repeated phrases

It gives the poem a predictable structure

It makes the poem easier to memorize
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 a ship first reaches land

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

The first Caribbean person killed by a European

The European construction of false dichotomies
17 How do the Africans use repetition against the colonizers in "Names"?

They see Europe as repeating the images of their homeland

They repeat their own languages in order to remember them

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

They repeat the colonizer's language in order to claim and transform it
18 Which of the following motifs does NOT appear in Names?

Decay

Work

The Sky

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

It suggests that the difference between humans and worms is not absolute

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

It insults human beings by comparing them to worms

It suggests that men are wormlike
20 Which of the following themes is least important to "Names"?

Loss of Origin

Relationship with Nature

The Continued Presence of History

Faith
21 The ending of "Names" most closely parallels which other Derek Walcott poem?

Ruins of the Great House

Map of the New World

Love After Love

Becune Point
22 Which of the following best describes how the Caribbean people respond to the names given to the landscape by Europeans?

They ignore the names

They create new names

They forget the names

They transform the connotations of the names
23 Where was Derek Walcott born?

England

America

Jamaica

St. Lucia
24 When was St. Lucia liberated?

1834

1814

1924

1979
25 "As a fishline sinks, the horizon sinks in the memory" is an example of what literary device?

Alliteration

Simile

Metaphor

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.

Wikipedia Entries for Derek Walcott: Collected Poems

Introduction

View Wikipedia Entries for Derek Walcott: Collected Poems…