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 describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

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.
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"?

Loving Life

Avoiding Grief

Grief and the Body

Resilience and Agency
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 word "resilience" appears twice in quick succession.

The speaker argues that one must choose to love life even in difficult circumstances.
7 How does Bass write about the body in "The Thing Is?"

The human body does not appear 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.

Not only does experiencing grief affect various parts of the human body, but grief is given its own bodily presence in the poem.
8 How is life personified in the poem?

As tropical heat.

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

As a figure that sits with you.

As an enemy.
9 Define "violet."

A bluish-purple color

Another word for violence

A flower

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

Stomach

Tropical Heat

Lambs

Burnt Paper
11 Which best characterizes the voices in Bass's poems?

Shrewd, Ironic

Conversational, Accessible

Joyful, Celebratory

Bitter, Pensive
12 Which points of view appear in "The Thing Is"?

First Person

Third Person

All of the perspectives

Second Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Blank Verse

Iambic Tetrameter

Iambic Pentameter

Free verse
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?

"to love life, to love it even"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

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

"when you have no stomach for it"
16 What is an example of irony in this poem?

When the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving
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 avoid grief at all cost.

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

One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?

A presence that sits with you.

An overabundance of flesh.

Tropical heat.

A baby to be held.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?

Then you

The thing is

Thickening

I will
22 What is personified in the poem?

Grief

Grief and Life

Love

Life
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

It is used in the court of law to introduce a case.

It is used in formal settings.

It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.
24 What is something that Bass has expressed is important to her in terms of her poetic craft?

Transformation

Despair

Denial

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

fake

historical

Instagram

praise

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