Final Exam: American Renaissance By William Stafford

Fill in blanks: Your name is

ldo Emerson. Your friend

Thor lives at Pond; he owes

you rent and an ax. Your

neighbor in a house with gables

won’t respond to another neighbor, Herman

, who broods about a whale colored .

You think it is time for America to .

In a few choice words, tell why.

From “The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems” by William Stafford

(Graywolf Press: 270 pp., $16 paper)