Wild Iris Quizzes

Wild Iris Quiz "The Wild Iris" and Glück

1 What is most significant about the context in which this poem was written?
Writing this poem broke a two-year writing block for Glück.

Writing this poem helped Glück reclaim her faith.

Glück chose from a thousand ideas she had, and set out to write from the perspectives of plants.

Glück knew she would win prizes for this poem.
2 When was the collection as a whole published?
2000

2002

1992

1993
3 What is at the end of the iris's suffering?
A key

Light

Nothing

A door
4 What does the iris claim to remember?
That which humans call "death"

An old lover

The duality between mind and body

The course of its life
5 What meter is this poem written in?
Sonnet

Rhymed

Free verse

Blank
6 Finish this quote: Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting. / Then ___"
Joy

Nothing

Death

Light
7 Who is the speaker?
The Gardener-Poet

Glück

The Wild Iris

God
8 What perspective is the poem written in?
Third

Second

First and second

First
9 Which is not a major theme in this poem?
Transformation

Cycles

Hell

Rebirth
10 Which of the following does not metaphorically resonate with the iris's experience as described in the poem?
The two-year hiatus in Glück's writing

The human fear of change, endings, and death

The human tendency to mourn and lay blame

The life cycle of plants
11 What does the Iris claim to be "over" in the poem?
Its life

The ability to create

Its career as a writer

The human fear of being a soul and unable to speak; death
12 Why might this poem be relatable to anyone?
There is a metaphorical gardener in each one of us

There is "a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater" coming from the center of all our lives

Everyone likes the iris flower

Everyone relies on self-expression to survive; "being / a soul and unable / to speak" is a common fear
13 Which detail connects to the designation of the iris as "wild"?
The seawater

The birds

The weak sun

The low shrubs
14 Which award did this collection go on to receive?
Robert Frost Medal

A Gugenheim

The Nobel Prize

A Pulitzer
15 How is "Glück" pronounced?
Glook

To rhyme with "click"

To rhyme with "smoke"

Glack
16 What defining event changed the course of Glück's life and writing when she was young?
A scholarship to the Iowa Writer's Workshop

The death of her mother

Dealing with anorexia and undergoing psychoanalysis, which shaped her thinking

A troubled relationship with her father, leading to her to marry young
17 For which of the following is Glück most renowned?
Metaphor

Her creative use of form

Figurative Language

Poetic personnae
18 What prize did Glück win in 2020?
Nobel Prize in Literature

A Guggenheim

Pulitzer Prize

None
19 Which best summarizes the tone of the entire collection?
Joyful, celebratory, emotive, intense

Depressing, austere, contemptul

Hopeful, sorrowful, contemplative, emotive

Rageful, disdainful, sharp, forgiving
20 What do the first lines in "The Wild Iris" do in relation to the whole collection?
There is no relevance to the first lines

They frame the purpose and focus of the collection

They foreshadow the speaker's suffering

They embellish the speaker's joy
21 According to the iris, what happens when one returns from oblivion?
One is changed

One dies

One can no longer communicate

One finds a voice
22 What does the door represent in the poem?
A change in circumstances and a self-transformation

A regular doorway

A human construct

Something that God will close
23 What does the iris say is terrible?
To see the birds darting in low shrubs

To go through the door at the end of suffering

To survive as consciousness buried in the dark earth

To suffer
24 Which is an example of alliteration?
"a soul and unable / to speak"

"At the end of my suffering"

"You who do not remember"

"from the center of my life came"
25 What comes from the center of the iris's life?
birds darting in low shrubs.

a great fountain, deep blue / shadows on azure seawater.

consciousness buried / in the dark earth.

a soul

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