The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

1 What collection was "The Thing Is" published in?

Like a Beggar

Mules of Love

The Human Line

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

2002

1977

2010

2018
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 instructs readers to love life even amidst the difficult heaviness of grief.

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

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

Pulitzer Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

Lambda Literary Award

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 one must choose to love life even in difficult circumstances.

The word "resilience" appears twice in quick succession.

The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.
7 How does Bass write about the body in "The Thing Is?"

The human body does not appear in the poem.

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

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

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 an enemy.

As tropical heat.

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 shade of red

A bluish-purple color

A flower
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?

Tropical Heat

Lambs

Burnt Paper

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

Shrewd, Ironic

Bitter, Pensive

Conversational, Accessible

Joyful, Celebratory
12 Which points of view appear in "The Thing Is"?

First Person

Third Person

Second Person

All of the perspectives
13 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic Tetrameter

Blank Verse

Free verse

Iambic Pentameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"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"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

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

"your throat filled with the silt of it"
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 the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

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

like your own flesh

as if you are pummeled

like your life

like a weight
19 What is the poem's thesis?

One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.

One should avoid grief at all cost.

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

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

Tropical heat.

An overabundance of flesh.

A presence that sits with you.

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

I will

Then you

The thing is

Thickening
22 What is personified in the poem?

Life

Grief

Love

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

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

It is used in formal settings.

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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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