Poetry
Poetry Again
Long Pieces
Long Pieces
Long Pieces
100

What is the main comparison in Heather McHugh's "Webcam the World"?

What is the comparison between environmental conservation and technology?

100

What is significant about the language used in "Freeway 280"?

What is the use of both English and Spanish?

100

What are the names of the two main characters in "The Machine Stops"?

Who is Vashti and Kuno?

100

What is the toxic donut from "The Toxic Donut" made of?

What is all of the world's toxic waste created that year?

100

What does Robin Wall Kimmerer compare nature to?

What is being a mother?

200

What is the group of English poets William Wordsworth was part of?

What are the Lake Poets?

200

What is the message of "Earthrise" by Amanda Gorman?

What is protect the Earth from Climate Change and rise up in defense of the planet?

200

What two childhood classics did Elwyn Brooks White create about talking animals?

What is Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web?
200

In "Space Leek" why does Jing's grandfather forbid her from helping with the leeks in the fields?

What is her grandfather believed she had more destined for her and should be pursuing those things rather than manual labor in poverty?

200

What is the name of the name of the instruction guide for the machine that people worship?

What is the "Book of the Machine"?

300

What is the name of Oliver Baez Bendorf's book that won the 2019 CSU Poetry Center Open Book Prize?

What is Advantages of Being Evergreen?

300

What is the backdrop of Marge Piercy's childhood that inspired her to write "The air smelled dirty"?

What is coal?
300

What did Chen Qiufan (Stanley Chan) critique about China?

What are technological progress and runaway capitalism, which he sees as the driving force for people's depression, isolation, inequality, and dissatisfaction with their busy lives?

300

What broke the illusion that no time had passed in "Once More to the Lake"?

What is the sound of the motorized boats?

300

How does Kuno escape to the outside world?

What is through an old air shaft?

400

What is the focus of the first stanza of Naomi Shihab Nye's "Different Ways to Pray"?

What are women who kneel on rough stone?

400

What is the inspiration for Amanda Gorman's Earthrise? (Bonus for who took the photo)

What is the famous photograph from 1968 Apollo 8 mission?

Who is William (Bill) A. Anders?

400

How do leeks save the day in "Space Leek"

What is Jing realizes the sticky film of the leeks is allyl methyl sulfide which she uses to create a synthetic polymer to patch up the leaks?

400

Why does the robot not kill Vashti when she asked to be euthanized?

What is the death and birth rates must be even?

400

How does Robin Wall Kimmerer and Chen Qiufan (Stanley Chan) differ in their opinions about the relationships between their offspring and nature?

What is:

Robin Wall Kimmerer wants her children to be connected to nature and loves plants like she does.

Chen Qiufan's story expresses a sense of pride for Shandong leeks but also a desire to escape the poverty that comes with rural lifestyles.


500

What is the animal in "The Blue" and the situation around it? (Get as specific as possible.)

What is the Smith's blue butterfly, named for Claude I. Smith by Rudi Mattoni? The butterfly is endangered due to habitat loss and juxtaposes the friendship of the two with the destruction of the California coast.

500

Why is "The World is Too Much with Us" a Petrarchan sonnet? (Bonus for what the meter is)

What are its last size lines (sestet) providing a response or answer to the first eight lines (octave)?

What is an iambic pentameter? 

500
How did "The Toxic Donut" get its name and what was the background behind its origin?

Hazel Johnson named Altgeld Gardens, the US federal housing project in Chicago, during the 1940s for African-American veterans of WWII.

The area was used for decades as a dumping ground for toxic waste from the Pullman Palace Car Company giving the residents extremely high rates of cancer.

500

In "Epiphany in the Beans", Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about Skywoman burring her daughter to produce plants humans use today. What are the plants and where did they come from? (100 for each)

1. Tobacco from the head.

2. Sweetgrass from the hair.

3. Strawberries from the heart.

4. Corn from the breasts.

5. Squash from the belly.

6. Beans from long fingers.

500

What is the division between subject and object, the thinking mind and the mechanical world, and mind vs. body?

What is Cartesian Dualism?

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