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.

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

Writing this poem helped Glück reclaim her faith.

Glück knew she would win prizes for this poem.
2 When was the collection as a whole published?
2002

1993

2000

1992
3 What is at the end of the iris's suffering?
Light

A door

A key

Nothing
4 What does the iris claim to remember?
The duality between mind and body

An old lover

The course of its life

That which humans call "death"
5 What meter is this poem written in?
Free verse

Sonnet

Rhymed

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

Nothing

Joy

Death
7 Who is the speaker?
The Gardener-Poet

Glück

The Wild Iris

God
8 What perspective is the poem written in?
Third

First and second

Second

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

Rebirth

Cycles

Transformation
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 life cycle of plants

The human fear of change, endings, and death

The human tendency to mourn and lay blame
11 What does the Iris claim to be "over" in the poem?
The ability to create

The human fear of being a soul and unable to speak; death

Its life

Its career as a writer
12 Why might this poem be relatable to anyone?
Everyone likes the iris flower

Everyone relies on self-expression to survive; "being / a soul and unable / to speak" is a common fear

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
13 Which detail connects to the designation of the iris as "wild"?
The weak sun

The seawater

The low shrubs

The birds
14 Which award did this collection go on to receive?
A Pulitzer

A Gugenheim

Robert Frost Medal

The Nobel Prize
15 How is "Glück" pronounced?
Glack

To rhyme with "smoke"

Glook

To rhyme with "click"
16 What defining event changed the course of Glück's life and writing when she was young?
Dealing with anorexia and undergoing psychoanalysis, which shaped her thinking

A scholarship to the Iowa Writer's Workshop

The death of her mother

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

Metaphor

Poetic personnae

Figurative Language
18 What prize did Glück win in 2020?
None

A Guggenheim

Pulitzer Prize

Nobel Prize in Literature
19 Which best summarizes the tone of the entire collection?
Hopeful, sorrowful, contemplative, emotive

Joyful, celebratory, emotive, intense

Depressing, austere, contemptul

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 embellish the speaker's joy

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

One dies

One finds a voice

One can no longer communicate
22 What does the door represent in the poem?
A human construct

Something that God will close

A regular doorway

A change in circumstances and a self-transformation
23 What does the iris say is terrible?
To see the birds darting in low shrubs

To survive as consciousness buried in the dark earth

To go through the door at the end of suffering

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

"At the end of my suffering"

"from the center of my life came"

"You who do not remember"
25 What comes from the center of the iris's life?
consciousness buried / in the dark earth.

a soul

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

birds darting in low shrubs.

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