35 pages 1 hour read

Wisława Szymborska

The End and the Beginning

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2001

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Literary Device Questions

1. What literary device is exemplified by the repetition of the phrase “someone has to”? (short answer)

2. Which of these is an example of metaphor in the poem?

A) “Photogenic, it’s not […]”

B) “Someone, broom in hand, / still recalls the way it was.”

C) “And finally as little as nothing.”

D) “In the grass that has overgrown / causes and effects […]”

3. Which of these is an example of alliteration?

A) “bridges back”

B) “still unearths”

C) “rusted-out arguments”

D) “another war”

4. What do the cameras symbolize in the poem?

A) the presence of news media and the circularity of war

B) voyeuristic observation

C) art and the culture of photography

D) the government’s role in war

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