The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

1 What collection was "The Thing Is" published in?
Mules of Love

Like a Beggar

Indigo

The Human Line
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
2018

1977

2010

2002
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?
The speaker holds her despair the way she held her babies when they were young.

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

The speaker instructs readers to love life even amidst the difficult heaviness of grief.

The speaker describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?
Lambda Literary Award

Pulitzer Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

Rattle Poetry Prize
5 Which is not a theme in "The Thing Is"?
Avoiding Grief

Resilience and Agency

Grief and the Body

Loving Life
6 How does the concept of resilience appear in the poem?
Resilience does not appear as a concept in the poem.

The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.

The speaker argues that one must choose to love life even in difficult circumstances.

The word "resilience" appears twice in quick succession.
7 How does Bass write about the body in "The Thing Is?"
Not only does experiencing grief affect various parts of the human body, but grief is given its own bodily presence in the poem.

Grief wrecks the human body and should be avoided at all cost.

The body is extremely fragile and cannot handle the weight of grief.

The human body does not appear in the poem.
8 How is life personified in the poem?
As tropical heat.

As an enemy.

As having a "plain face" with "no charming smile" or "violet eyes."

As a figure that sits with you.
9 Define "violet."
Another word for violence

A bluish-purple color

A flower

A shade of red
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
Stomach

Lambs

Burnt Paper

Tropical Heat
11 Which best characterizes the voices in Bass's poems?
Joyful, Celebratory

Bitter, Pensive

Shrewd, Ironic

Conversational, Accessible
12 Which points of view appear in "The Thing Is"?
All of the perspectives

Third Person

Second Person

First Person
13 What is the poem's meter?
Free verse

Blank Verse

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"Then you hold life like a face"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"to love life, to love it even"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"when you have no stomach for it"

"only more of it, an obesity of grief,"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"
16 What is an example of irony in this poem?
When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

When the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"
like a weight

like your life

like your own flesh

as if you are pummeled
19 What is the poem's thesis?
One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.

One should choose to love life in any circumstances, including grief.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

One should avoid grief at all cost.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
A presence that sits with you.

Tropical heat.

A baby to be held.

An overabundance of flesh.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
Thickening

The thing is

I will

Then you
22 What is personified in the poem?
Love

Life

Grief and Life

Grief
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?
It is used in the court of law to introduce a case.

It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.

It is used in formal settings.

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.
24 What is something that Bass has expressed is important to her in terms of her poetic craft?
Despair

Transformation

Denial

Nature
25 Bass calls herself a(n) ___ poet.
Instagram

praise

historical

fake

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