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Carl Sandburg is often cited as an inspiration to Langston Hughes' poetry. From what we've read of both poets, which of the following best represents their common ground?

Both influenced by Walt Whitman's poetry, they use free-verse, everyday vernacular as well as folk rhythms to sculpt the American voice on the page

If an Imagist were to read one of Carl Sandburg's poems on our reading list, that Imagist would most enjoy the craft of which of Sandburg's poems?

Fog

Consider the closing paragraph from Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me":

For Hurston, who often does not feel victimized by the color of her skin, to be "colored me" is to be individualized, yet relatable to all other folks who are beautifully and individually made.

Most Americans will be able to recognize the lines "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" from Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus." However, in the previous line, she writes, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" This "storied pomp." that we are to rid ourselves in our journeys for identity as Americans, is best described as:

narratives from cultures like ancient Greece and Rome, of gods, kings, and the elite because America is the land of opportunity in which the average person is free to create our own destinies

Should we pity the human race, according to e. e. cummings' "pity this busy monster,manunkind"?

no

Emily Dickinson's poetry often employs the first-person (I, me, my, mine) perspective, but with her poetry in particular, we should not assume that the "I" is autobiographical. This poetic device, the use of the "I" as speaker, but not poet, is called:

personae

The Harlem Renaissance not only allowed black Americans to write nonfiction and poetry. Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes are also famous during this time for their contributions to the legitimization of black American art ("about us, by us, for us, near us" and "without blackface") in what other genre?

plays

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" depicts what an individual might experience at her own funeral service while lying in her casket. Given that Emily Dickinson's poetry is grouped into the Romantic literary movement, what is the tone of this poem's message?

positive

Based on the single, prevailing image depicted in William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just to Say," which color is best associated with the poem?

purple

While this image has been unfortunately reduced to a stereotype, Emily Dickinson was known in her day for being:

recluse

William Carlos Williams' poetic proclamation of desire in "Queen Anne's Lace" exemplifies a modern mindset because it:

rewrites sexual connection as an adventure, rather than dominion.

Which of the following Romantic characteristics best labels Whitman's opening to "Song of Myself," based on how he chose himself as his muse?

romantic subjectivity

Due to its artists' desperate search for meaning and purpose through art and literature once mechanized, industrialized culture became mainstream, Modernism embodies similarities of which other literary movement?

romanticism

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" features Mrs. Mallard's reaction to hearing the news of her husbands death. When she is alone in her room unencumbered by company how does mrs mallard take the news?

she feels free from the bonds of marriage

Emily Dickinson's "The Soul selects her own Society" may be a Romantic poem because the speaker:

shuns the artifice in others to live authentically with a few

Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" alludes to which major biblical story?

the fall of eden

The Lost Generation had lost faith in the "traditional" way of life. Select all the following that apply to literary themes associated with The Lost Generation.

the frivolity of the rich the breakdown of traditional gender roles the death of the American Dream

In Democratic Vistas, Whitman refers to which of the following as the greatest American practice?

the national election

Which of the following choices best represents a common theme found in both sections 6 and 16 of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"?

the wisdom of childlike innocence

In Marxist and Social Darwinist theories, both influences during Naturalism as a literary movement, the term proletariat is often used. What is the proletariat?

the working class of society

Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" personifies Death as a kind chariot guide. Consider the following stanza from the poem: "We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground - The Roof was scarcely visible The Cornice - in the Ground -" Where has Death led the speaker?

to the grave

e. e. cummings in "Buffalo Bill's" uses the word "defunct" instead of "dead" in order to set which of the following tones for the poem?

unsympathetic

The poet e.e. cummings is known for:

unusual punctuation, spacing, and capitalization of poetic lines

Within his Democratic Vistas essav. who does Whitman invite from the "interminable swarms" to participate more in the literary discursive practice of defining ourselves as Americans?

women

Although the speaker in Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" exudes confidence in her character and her personhood, there is one specific scene that depicts the discomfort or alienation she feels when it comes to being "colored." Which of the following experiences makes her truly feel hurt by her difference?

Her history and culture is not as accessible or understandable for some white folks, specifically jazz music and dance.

Although this passage contains creative language typical of Romantic authors, W. E. B. Du Bois' work fits into the Realist tradition because:

His work serves as social criticism, in which literature is effective to move the reader to social action.

Langston Hughes, like various other artists on our reading list, was inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman. Which of the following best represents the overall Whitmanesque message of "Theme for English B"?

Identity and self are Whitmanesque subjects of "Theme for English B" and can be synthesized in the following lines: "You are white-- / yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. / That's American."

Does the speaker solve her conundrum at the end of the poem?

In the modern condition, both of these answers can be true at the same time.

Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is an exemplary story within the Modernist literary movement because:

It shows that because we are so alienated from each other after the events of WWI that both men and women cannot properly communicate, even with those they love.

Emma Lazarus was a poet who cared deeply for refugees. Specifically, which group of immigrants did Lazarus wish were more accepted into American culture at the time?

JEWS

If Marianne Moore claims in her poem "Poetry" that, "I, too, dislike it" (line 1), then why would she write poetry?

Life is noisy, confusing, and hard to control. In poetry, Moore can manipulate life into ordered, calculated beauty, yet it still requires noise and confusion in order to be a poem.

When it comes to Modernist "style." we cannot pin down a ubiquitous quality from author to author. The themes may overlap, but we can indicate certain writers by a glance at the page. William Faulkner's writing can be best described as which of the following?

Long, ornate, and almost biblical

Which of the following best represents the difference between Modernism and Postmodernism?

Modernists sought after universal truths within a fragmented society in order to create an egalitarian society, while Postmodernists posited that fragmentation is all there is, and all is relative.

How does William Faulkner reveal the inner thoughts of Sarty in his story "Barn Burning'?

Readers "see" inside Sarty's stream of consciousness by the italicized thoughts he has.

Jack London's short stories and novels are known for being naturalistic. Which of the following best describes what makes up Naturalism?

Realism + Determinism = Naturalism

Based on our introduction to the narrator of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, how can we tell that he is an anti-hero?

The anti-hero is not the antagonist, but rather a central character who first conforms to social norms to no avail, but usually ends up defeated by the masses because he is not strong enough to obtain his own meaning or to affect change.

Let's say that we have invited a naturalist literary scholar to class to talk about Jack London's "To Build a Fire." If we asked them why the man's hypothermic death is narratively necessary, the scholar might refer to how figureheads in the naturalist literary tradition would prescribe to Social Darwinism and the "survival of the fittest" narrative. Why was the man not fit to survive, but the dog does?

The man is clearly an opportunistic American who is traveling along the Yukon River in pursuit of economic success. Therefore, he dons an imperialistic mindset to act advantageously toward the most unspoiled, fierce danger there is. The man's goal is to overtake a force larger than him, and is doomed to fail, whereas the dog respects the elements' power enough simply survive the terrain and dwell in

Which of the following should not be considered a reason why Marianne Moore's "Poetry" is a Modernist work?

The poem's content is discriminatory, privileging highly artistic allusions to details of the past to show that the primitive nature of the twentieth century isn't worthy of being included in poems.

Which of the following best paraphrases the message of Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice"

The speaker believes that the world will end in fire because in his experience, human desire is both powerful but destructive, but he can see the other side: the world could end in ice because our ability to hate is just as powerful.

Which of the following characteristics of Emily Dickinson's "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church" justifies why it is considered a Romantic poem?

all are correct

According to William Carlos Williams, despite how short, simple, and familiar it is, what makes "This Is Just To Say" a poem?

all of the above

William Faulkner's collective works, most notably his short story "Barn Burning," are important Modernist writings because he illuminates the specific alienations, social problems, characters, and micronarratives of which of the following regions?

american south

What is the medical procedure that Jig and the American discuss but never call by name in Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants"?

an abortion

The voices of the Harlem Renaissance seek to legitimize and to assemble multiple identities at once. Select all that apply.

an artist american black

Modernist poets, especially the High Modernists, frequently included heavy, obscure, or dense allusions in their poems. These allusions often alienate contemporary readers. In the case of Marianne Moore's "Feed Me, Also, River God," which of the following would we not need extensive knowledge about to unpack the poem?

aquatic animals

Carl Sandburg compares early morning mists in his poem "Fog" to what animal?

cat

In section 15 of "Song of Myself," Whitman writes in encyclopedic lists, or "catalogues," capturing various snapshots of Americans: the farmer, the prostitute, the lunatic, the paving man, the carpenter, and so on. Of all walks of life, Whitman "weaves the song of myself." This section echoes Whitman's view on which of the following?

democracy

In the first chapter of The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, he shares this: "One ever feels his twoness, --an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." This description metaphorically defines which of the following terms that he coined:

double-consciousness

Which of the following is the ultimate takeaway of e. e. cummings' "Buffalo Bill's"?

e. e. cummings satirizes the traditional male hero: death does not discriminate nor care about our good deeds or wrongdoings, and no one is truly heroic when in front of death.

In "Queen-Anne's Lace." William Carlos Williams ultimately equates the feminine with a

field

Whitman in Democratic Vistas creates an extended metaphor for democracy and its spread. What is the symbol?

fountain

If we omitted Dickinson's name from her poems, most who have studied her work would be able to recognize its presence on the page and its musicality. Which of the following is not present in Dickinson's poetry?

free verse

Walt Whitman pioneered and wrote his poetry primarily in one form. Which is it?

free verse

Which term does NOT belong to describe the writings of the author Mark Twain?

idealism

Ezra Pound and his student H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) were forerunners of a poetry movement called:

imagism

Which of the following was generally a concern of thinkers and writers of American literature after the Civil War?

industrialization

The wolf dog in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" possesses a trait that the traveling man does not. Which is it?

instinct

Emily Dickinson's poem "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" can be considered a part of the Realist tradition because:

it shows objectivity and unsentimentalized knowledge about how the journey to truth is gradual, therefore painful, but necessary.

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, within which we find the poem "Song of Myself" was controversial and innovative for its time because of:

its treatment of the issues of the lives of common people, American themes, and sexuality

The tone of these lines, as well as the section itself, can best be described as which of the following?

lonely and tired, because he's given all himself (and the whole of America) to readers while waiting for someone to respond

Attributed to Ralph Ellison, he says that "democracy" is our word for:

love

Ezra Pound coined one of the most famous maxims of the Modernist movement. Which is it?

make it new

Which of the following famous American authors helped coin the term Gilded Age?

mark twain

Toward the end of the first chapter, Du Bois asserts that black Americans deserve attention for originally defining one artform for the nation. What is the artform?

music

If we were to pick out a "thesis statement" or central idea/message in Jack London's "To Build a Fire," then which of the following is the best fit?

"He seemed to be flying along above the surface and to have no connection with the earth" (14).

Which of the following motifs in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" is not only the object on which he muses for the whole poem, but becomes a symbol of American individualism and democracy in section 6?

"a spear of summer grass"

True or False: In "I cannot live with You," Dickinson doesn't take the conventional path of renouncing early love in favor of a more compelling, divine love; she renounces earthy love because to her, it is the more powerful of the two that she is not willing to risk. In short, the speaker will not love out of a sense of duty.

TRUE

True or False: The message of section 2 of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" can be summarized as, "Abandon books, forget what you know, and obtain knowledge through nature's innocence and vastness."

TRUE

True or False: Walt Whitman gives us permission to embrace contradiction. Section 52, the conclusion to his poem "Song of Myself," contradicts itself because even though his wild "barbaric yawp" sounds "over the roofs of the world," we as readers are left to search for him (and all America) in the quiet of his (and all of our) grass- sown grave.

TRUE

True or false: Both cheese and meat will age beautifully in the right conditions, but when not aged in those conditions, they will spoil and reek. Such smells symbolize why Sarty's upbringing is doomed to end in isolation, but it is also why he must leave the curse of his upbringing.

TRUE

True or false: Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" illustrates a speaker who experiences a subconscious desire to "sleep" permanently, to find death and oblivion in the woods. The repetition of the line "and miles to go before I sleep" could be interpreted as weary resignation, as the speaker leaves and moves on - or even futile self-remonstration, as his will to return to genteel society ebbs, and he stays by the woods to his doom.

TRUE

True or false: The America that Langston Hughes paints in "I, Too" is one that must be taken instead of granted because to be an American is to seize opportunity, even if it means stealing food from a kitchen and openly claiming a seat at a kitchen table.

TRUE

True or false: The Postmodern literary movement is a contradiction, being both an extension of Modernism as well as a negative reaction to Modernism.

TRUE

True or false: William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" is a melancholic poem that builds a single image of an agrarian lifestyle that cannot sustain itself any longer in modernity.

TRUE

According to verse 1 of "Song of Myself," Walt Whitman begins the poem "in perfect health" when he is how old?

37

"There was something about his wolflike independence and even courage when the advantage was at least neutral which impressed strangers, as if they got from his latent ravening ferocity not so much a sense of dependability as a feeling that his ferocious conviction in the rightness of his own actions would be of advantage to all whose interest lay with his." Faulkner is describing which of the following characters?

Abner

Carl Sandburg was a poet, a folk artist, a farmer, and a historian. Along with his accolades in poetry, he is known for his extensive biographical work on which American President's life?

Abraham Lincoln

Carl Sandburg is old school. In his poem "Chicago," we see various characteristics of Modernism in the people he showcases: prostitutes, criminals, hungry women and children, all estranged from their identity because they are so tied to the identity of Chicago, am industrial boomer and devoid of pastoral scenery. However, what makes this poem Romantic, specifically influenced by Whitman?

Although Whitman would repel against such an industrialized scene, Sandburg's urban America in "Chicago" sings in the glory of its own city, however decadent and hungry some of its citizens may be, and they signify democracy: one represents many, and many represent one.

In Greek, Roman, and British epics, the poet begins with a muse, almost always a god (depending on polytheistic or monotheistic culture). Whitman, however, breaks tradition in his own opening of "Song of Myself": "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." Why is it significant that Whitman becomes his own muse as a Romantic poet?

Because he is the poet of democracy, to become his own muse is to also allow his fellow Americans to be his muse, too

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" was controversial during his lifetime. Why would section 7 be shocking to his readers in post-Civil War America?

Because of the homoerotic undertones of lines like, "Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale nor discarded."

Because we know that Paul Cezanne's post-impressionist paintings impressed upon Hemingway's style, we should pay attention to which of the following when we are looking for his stories' meaning, images, and themes?

Both A and B are correct.

In Walt Whitman's Democratic Vistas, he calls for a "new earth and a new man" in order to form the perfect democracy. What does he believe to be the most "important" part of his vision, so that it can be achieved in America?

Elevate the value of the average person's opinion and the power of their thoughts.

The term "The Lost Generation" is said to be coined by poet and thinker Gertrude Stein. However, which one of the following artists of The Lost Generation popularizes the term in his novel The Sun Also Rises?

Ernest Hemingway

True or False: Although Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are both Romantic poets, the differ in style. The main difference in their stvle and content is that Dickinson's poetry muses on the power of Nature without paradox or contradiction, unlike Whitman who embraces contradiction.

FALSE

True or False: In her body of works in many genres, especially her nonfiction, Zora Neale Hurston sought to protect the folks of Eatonville, Florida and didn't always tell the whole truth to protect the guilty.

FALSE

True or False: Like the champion of the Imagist movement, William Carlos Williams agrees with Ezra Pound that poetry must live on an elevated plane, above the human experience.

FALSE

True or false: Because of their artistic search for meaning, Modernist works will often end with clean resolutions, or closure.

FALSE

True or false: Langston Hughes loved the Shakespearean sonnet because its form and meter easily lent for the containment of heightened emotions, and black Americans should be writing sonnets for this reason in order to be heard.

FALSE

True or false: Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was narrated by Jim Smiley himself, the trainer of the jumping frog and the one who likes to make bets.

FALSE

True or false:Among the Modernist poets on our reading list, Robert Frost's poems exemplify more experimental stylistics (without rhyme and meter), and the themes of his poems (skepticism of reality, isolation, doom, lack of intrinsic purpose) are also quintessentially Modern.

FALSE

The ideologies of powerful businesspeople and politicians during the Gilded Age often ran counter to Romantic views. If we were to believe that writers somehow impacted political minds of the time, then which of the following changes in American life may have resulted in Romantic literature?

Increased populist voters

The "dream deferred" of Langston Hughes' "Harlem" looks a lot like which of the following:

It is a dream that is not made equitable to all, and if circumstances don't change, then there may be dangerous consequences.

How does Smiley lose a forty-dollar jumping frog bet to a stranger in Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?

The stranger fills Dan' with quail shot while Smiley is off catching a different frog.

Too often, Americans will misinterpret Robert Frost's body of works, as well as his individual poems. Which of the following is the most accurate (and blessed by Frost) interpretation of his poem "The Road Not Taken"?

The two roads presented in "The Road Not Taken" are exactly the same. We choose our paths at random, and when we look back on the choices we've made, the only true weight of that choice is that it didn't matter. Destiny is an illusion.

Informed by our knowledge of Realism and Regionalism, we can interpret this parallel as which of the following?

To the narrator Simon Wheeler, Jim Smiley is on the same mythic plane as Leonidas Smiley, in theory, because he is representative of the mining camp's "local color" and gives the area meaning as a "folk hero."

Whose ideas, literature, and activism that we learned about during Week 1 influenced the Harlem cultural psyche to write what they know?

W. E. B. Du Bois

The aftermath of which historical event marks the beginning of Postmodernism?

WW2

In "Grass," Carl Sandburg subverts Whitman's "summer spear of grass" from "Song of Myself." In modernity, grass means what?

What was once a symbol of democracy, choice, poetry, and the American in Whitman's poetry, the grass in Sandburg's "Grass" is a contradiction: It is a symbol of renewal for all those lost in American wars, but it also works so well that it estranges us from our collective memory about the evil of war.

The last line of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" reads as follows: "When the doctors came they said she had died from heart disease--of joy that kills." Informed by what we know about Naturalism, which of the following best represents the meaning of the story?

When momentarily freed, both body and soul, from the domestic sphere and from the rigidity of marriage, Mrs. Mallard dies from heart disease metaphorically because the anticipation of further marital strain is unbearable.

Modernism followed Realism and Naturalism in literary movements. Modernism is known for

being "focused even more sharply on the spiritual problems and disillusionments" of American society at the time