Literature: Selections

Question 1

Who is the author of “The World is Too Much With Us”?

Answer 1

William Wordsworth

Question 2

Where in England was William Wordsworth born (it is also known as the Lake District)?

Answer 2

Cumberland

Question 3

Where did William Wordsworth attend college?

Answer 3

St. John’s College
- he became disenchanted by the competitive nature of his studies here, and instead found solace in an extended summer walking tour of Revolutionary France in 1790

Question 4

What major world event had an enormous impact on William Wordsworth’s early work?

Answer 4

the French Revolution

Question 5

To what historical movement did William Wordsworth contribute to?

Answer 5

the Romantic movement

Question 6

What was the name of the group of English poets that William Wordsworth was a part of?

Answer 6

the Lake Poets

Question 7

What was unique about the group of English poets that William Wordsworth was a part of, the Lake Poets?

Answer 7

they were grouped together by geographic residence and the subject of their poetry and prose (the surrounding lakes and the relationship between man and nature in general)

Question 8

What was a main feature of William Wordsworth’s poems that contradicted the popular poetry of the preceding periods?

Answer 8

his
- focus on representing common folk as his subjects
- and using vernacular language

Question 9

William Wordsworth criticized what revolution for its treatment of workers and its despoliation of nature?

Answer 9

the Industrial Revolution

Question 10

Famous poems such as “The Prelude” and “Michael” were written by who?

Answer 10

William Wordsworth

Question 11

William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” is in what form of poem?

Answer 11

sonnet

Question 12

What defines an English sonnet?

Answer 12

14 lines written of iambic pentameter

Question 13

What defines a Petrarchan sonnet?

Answer 13

the last 6 lines (sestet) provide a response or answer to the first 8 lines (octave)

Question 14

What is distinctive about a Shakespearian sonnet?

Answer 14

features 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet to “answer” or provide a solution to, the problem introduced in the earlier lines

Question 15

What is an overarching theme of William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us”?

Answer 15

humanity’s alienation from nature

Question 16

During what period of time is “The World Is Too Much With Us” situated?

Answer 16

the Industrial Revolution

Question 17

The speaker appealing to God in line 9 of “The World Is Too Much With Us” is an example of what kind of literary device?

Answer 17

apostrophe

Question 18

The speaker’s reference to Greek gods associated with the sea in “The World Is Too Much With Us” is an example of what kind of literary device?

Answer 18

allusion

Question 19

Who is the author of “Freeway 280”?

Answer 19

Lorna Dee Cervantes

Question 20

What year was Lorna Dee Cervantes born?

Answer 20

1954

Question 21

Where was Lorna Dee Cervantes raised?

Answer 21

San Jose, California

Question 22

Lorna Dee Cervantes is of Mexican and ________ _________ descent.

Answer 22

Native American (Chumash)

Question 23

How did Lorna Dee Cervantes’s childhood affect the themes she expresses in her poetry?

Answer 23

She was strictly forbidden from speaking any language but English in her home because her parents were concerned with prejudice against Spanish-speaking citizens in the US
- she includes themes in her poetry surrounding identity, feminism, cultural heritage, social justice, and capturing the complex experiences of Lantinx communities

Question 24

What was the name of the 2007 interview in which Lorna Dee Cervantes explained that Pablo Neruda’s poetry was a strong influence in her life, as well as that of Maya Angelou, Phillis Wheatley, Gwendolyn Brooks, and other Black women poets?

Answer 24

“Poetry Saved My Life”

Question 25

How is Lorna Dee Cervantes’s approach and relationship with poetry similar to that of William Wordsworth’s?

Answer 25

they were both greatly concerned with class-consciousness, and deliberately writing in an accessible style
- Lorna Dee Cervantes writes in a style accessible for bilingual speakers

Question 26

What two languages does Lorna Dee Cervantes mix in her poem “Freeway 280”?

Answer 26

English and Spanish

Question 27

What two elements are juxtaposed in “Freeway 280”?

Answer 27

the colorful, rioting embrace of “wild roses and man-high red geraniums” against the stark, desolate imagery of the manmade freeway that cuts across the land like a gash

Question 28

What kind of diction is “Freeway 280” described to have?

Answer 28

dreary

Question 29

What is the speaker’s relationship with the freeway in “Freeway 280”/why is it complicated?

Answer 29

• speaker used to remember wishing that the freeway would take her away, and used to represent freedom in that sense
• now, searches to reconnect with their history and home, searches for the grassy fields outside of the city (kind of like Lorna Dee Cervantes’s struggle with being forced to only speak English as a child, and then finding her roots again!!)

Question 30

Who is the author of “Different Ways to Pray”?

Answer 30

Naomi Shihab Nye

Question 31

What year was Naomi Shihab Nye born?

Answer 31

1952

Question 32

Where was Naomi Shihab Nye born?

Answer 32

St. Louis, Missouri

Question 33

Where did Naomi Shihab Nye move as a teenager, only to leave after one year?

Answer 33

West Bank, Palestine

Question 34

Naomi Shihab Nye has spent much of her life where, and even teaches creative writing there?

Answer 34

Texas, teaches creative writing at Texas State University

Question 35

In 2013, Naomi Shihab Nye received what award?

Answer 35

Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature

Question 36

How many Pushcart prizes has Naomi Shihab Nye won?

Answer 36

4

Question 37

About how many volumes of poetry has Naomi Shihab Nye written?

Answer 37

over 20 volumes of poetry

Question 38

What does Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems advocate for?

Answer 38

Arab Americans, particularly in the wake of the discriminatory backlash against Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, South Asians, and other individuals perceived to be from Middle Eastern backgrounds that followed the 9/11 terrorists attacks.