Karl Shapiro: Selected Poems Essay Questions

Essay Questions

  1. 1

    Psychoanalytically, why does the ‘she dream’ about her father in “A Love for a Hand”?

    In her dream, “often when too steep her dream descends/Perhaps to the grotto where her father bends/to pick her up,” Then she is dreaming about her father while she is sleeping with her husband and their hands are clasped. From a psychoanalytic direction, the dream suggests that she wishes her husband to safeguard her from threat in the same way that her father would or used to.

  2. 2

    How does the poem “University” approach the issue of race and inequality?

    “University “disapproves of the university curriculums for disseminating racial inequities. By way of curriculums, universities nurture the imbalances instead of impeding them. Consequently, university students, who are expected to rise above racial unfairness based on their awareness, live with the precincts of races.

  3. 3

    What sexuality-related conclusions can be made in the poem “The Cross-Tree”?

    From the direction of sexuality, the crosstree denotes a bisexual person who seeks a medication from a doctor so that “his gun” can be efficient. The incapability of the gun to kill means that the speaker cannot take part in a typical sexual life owing to bisexualism.

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