Mother to Son Poetry Review

Mother to Son Poetry Review

By James Norton

Multiple Choice

The mother says that “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Used in this context, “crystal" means

• transparent and colorless.

• sharp and painful.

• beautiful and flawed.

• clear and smooth.

Multiple Choice

The mother’s dialect or manner of speaking helps to make the poem more

• understandable.

• realistic.

• serious.

• descriptive.

Multiple Choice

The mother tells her son to do all of the following EXCEPT

• not to turn corners.

• not to turn back.

• not to fall.

• not to sit down.

Multiple Choice

The adjective listed that BEST describes the mother’s character is

• pessimistic.

• threatening.

• cautious.

• persevering.

Multiple Choice

The author’s use of a stairway to represent life is an example of

• an allusion.

• a hyperbole.

• a metaphor.

• personification.

Multiple Choice

Why do you think the author began and finished the piece with “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”?

• To emphasize a key point.

• To make sure you understood the idea.

• To signify the passage of time.

• To highlight an unusual thought.

Multiple Choice

In the first seven lines, to what is Hughes comparing a stairway with “tacks in it and splinters?”

• The carpet on the stairway.

• The other people who live in the run-down housing.

• The son.

• Life.

Multiple Choice

   In this poem, boards with “tacks and splinters” and “boards torn up” are symbols for

• Run-down housing.

• A life that has had many difficulties and challenges.

• The ungrateful way the mother’s son treats her.

• The lack of compassion each man has for his fellow man

Multiple Choice

What might “reachin’ landin’s” symbolize in the mother’s climb?

• Destructive forces in her life.

• Portions of her life that held magic for her.

• Compassionate forces in her life.

• Places in her life where she had to stop and make decisions.

Multiple Choice

Why do you think the word “bare” is on a line all alone?  

• To emphasize the son’s brutality.

•  Because Hughes couldn’t think of anything else to add to that line.

• To emphasize how difficult and “bare” of luxuries the mother’s life had been.

• Because it rhymes with the word “stair”.

Multiple Choice

 What is the MOST LIKELY meaning for “turnin’ corners” in the context of the poem?  

• Places in her life where she set new goals or had to solve her problems in a new way.

• Places in her life where she felt like she had failed.

• The point in her life when she knew her son would be successful.

• Her need to find a father figure for her son.

Multiple Choice

The crystal stair is a metaphor that is used throughout the poem.  What is the author’s purpose for making the stairway “crystal"?

• Crystal is beautiful, but it is also fragile and breaks easily.

• Crystal sparkles in the sunlight.

• Crystal has different colors in it depending on how the light hits it.

• You can almost see-through crystal.

Multiple Choice

Why is a “stairway” a particularly appropriate metaphor to describe the wisdom the mother is trying to impart to her son? 

• Stairways are almost always dirty and rough.

• One has to clean and wax a stairway to make it look good.

• A stairway takes steady persistence to climb and it can go up and down.

• Stairways are often found in expensive houses.