Round 2: Tossup 19

One of this poet’s speakers states “A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem” while watching a janitor in the Singapore airport clean a restroom. This poet praised Robert Frost’s use of mute consonants in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” which is examined in this author’s A Poetry Handbook. A poem by this author claims, “When it’s over, I want to say: (10[1])all my life / I was a bride married to amazement.” This poet spent years organizing the papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay at the Steepletop farmhouse. (10[1])A poem by this author asks “Tell me, what is (-5[1])it you plan to do with your one wild and (10[1])precious life?” (10[2]-5[3])The speaker of this (10[1])poet’s most famous (10[1])poem declares that “You only have to (10[1])let (10[1])the soft (10[1])animal (-5[1])of your body (10[1])love what it loves” (10[1])and “You do not have to be good.” For 10 points, (-5[1])name this American poet of “Wild Geese.” ■END■ (10[7]0[3])

ANSWER: Mary Oliver [or Mary Jane Oliver] (The poems are “When Death Comes” and “The Summer Day.”)
<Editors, American Literature> | B. Prelims 2 - Northwestern A + Virginia Tech + Brown + Penn State
= Average correct buzzpoint

Back to tossups