Fever 103 Quizzes

Fever 103 Quiz

1 Who or what is Cerberus?

The multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld

The brightest star in the night sky

Son of the witch Sycorax in Shakespeare’s The Tempest

The first son of Adam and Eve
2 What is an “aguey tendon”?

Broken sinew

Blood-red muscle

Feverish muscle

Anguished tendency
3 What does it mean that the smelled of a snuffed candle is “indelible”?

It is indistinct and hard to recognize

It is recognizable and long-lasting

It is delightful and appetizing

It is distasteful and unappetizing
4 What does the “smoke” which rolls from the speaker “like Isadora’s scarves” signify?

Fear

Death

Rebirth

An embrace
5 In regards to the “Hothouse baby” in the seventh stanza, what is one way of interpreting the word “hothouse” here?

Resuscitated

Red-cheeked

Raised in a brothel

Incubated
6 How might we interpret the “you” in the line “Your body / Hurts me as the world hurts God”?

As signifying her own body, whose illness betrayed her

As signifying Cerberus, who is incapable of cleansing her of sin

As signifying the devil, who is putting her through hellish suffering

As signifying her husband, whose sexual infidelity betrayed their marriage
7 Why is it significant that she can be “a huge camellia” “all by [herself]”?

Because “huge” camellias are usually the “male” flowers

Because camellias signify the union or commitment between two people

Because camellias are difficult to grow and require much nourishment

Because camellias always grow in pairs on the same stem
8 What is acetylene, as in the line “I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin”?

A drug used to treat mild to moderate pain and aches

C2H2, a colorless and flammable gas unstable in its pure form

A salt formed by the combination of acetic acid with a base

A psychedelic that causes hallucinations
9 What are cherubim?

Supernatural creatures in early Islamic mythology

Demons featured in the 1940 film Fantasia

Small red stone fruits

Winged angels which attend on God, often depicted as chubby winged children
10 How many of the poems included in Plath’s posthumously published book Ariel were written, like this one, in the month of October 1962?

41

7

12

26
11 What is one way that Plath defies the usual definition of a “confessional” poet?

The frequent engagement with historic and political metaphor in her poetry

The fact that she was a young woman

The vivid fictive imagination of many of her poems

The frequent reference to an ambiguous “you”
12 Which of the following images in the poem subtly imply the physical fragility of the feverish speaker?

All of the answers

"I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin / Attended by roses”

“Water, water make me retch”

“I am a lantern— / My head a moon / Of Japanese paper”
13 Which meaning(s) of “flush” is or are operative in the line “Glowing and coming and going, flush on flush”?

All of the answers

Tinged red; blushing

A transitory sensation of extreme heat

Sudden and abundant growth
14 Which of the following lines portray a volatile, unstable constitution of the self?

"(My selves dissolving, old whore petticoats)"

"I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin"

"All by myself I am a huge camellia / Glowing and coming and going"

All of the answers
15 Which of the following pairs of lines marks the biggest transition in the poem?

“Water, water make me retch. / I am too pure for you or anyone.”

“flush on flush. / I think I am going up,”

“The sin. The sin. / Darling, all night”

All of the answers
16 Which of the following seem to be prerequisites for “rising” in this poem?

Emptiness

Suffering

All of the answers

Purity
17 Which of the following is NOT a tone this poem takes?

Resigned

Condemnatory

Frightened

Amazed
18 Which spiritual tradition was Sylvia Plath immersed in reading about, though not an adherent of, in her later years of life?

Protestantism

Daoism

Catholicism

Hinduism
19 In which context of Sylvia Plath’s life was this poem written?

Sick, recently separated and returned to live with friends in Boston

Sick, recently separated, a single parent to two children in London

Sick, on her honeymoon in Ireland

Healthy, living alone in an attic room in London
20 When and where was this poem first published?

In a reprint of Ariel in the 1990s when a number of lost poems were discovered

In 1962 in the magazine Poetry, weeks before her death

In 1965 in Ariel, years after her death

In 1963 in the magazine Poetry, months after her death
21 Which feeling is most frequently associated with sexuality in this poem?

Nostalgia

Hatred

Betrayal

Desire
22 Which pink flower doesn't appear in this poem?

Camellias

Orchids

Tulips

Roses
23 Which color isn’t overtly named in the poem, but remains the most prominent in its visual landscape?

Pink

Yellow

White

Red
24 Which mythological tradition isn’t referenced in this poem?

Christian mythology

Hindu mythology

None of the answers

Greek mythology
25 Which of the following is the best example of alliteration?

Attended by roses, / By kisses, by cherubim

I have been flickering, off, on, off, on

My head a moon / Of Japanese paper

Love, love, the low smokes roll

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