The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

The Human Line

Indigo

Like a Beggar
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
2018

2002

2010

1977
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?
The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

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 describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?
Nobel Peace Prize

Lambda Literary Award

Pulitzer Prize

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

Loving Life

Resilience and Agency

Grief and the Body
6 How does the concept of resilience appear 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.

Resilience does not appear as a concept in the poem.
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 an enemy.

As a figure that sits with you.

As tropical heat.

As having a "plain face" with "no charming smile" or "violet eyes."
9 Define "violet."
A flower

A bluish-purple color

A shade of red

Another word for violence
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
Burnt Paper

Lambs

Stomach

Tropical Heat
11 Which best characterizes the voices in Bass's poems?
Conversational, Accessible

Joyful, Celebratory

Shrewd, Ironic

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

First Person

All of the perspectives

Third Person
13 What is the poem's meter?
Iambic Pentameter

Blank Verse

Iambic Tetrameter

Free verse
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"and everything you’ve held dear"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"to love life, to love it even"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

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

"when you have no stomach for it"

"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 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?
Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"
as if you are pummeled

like your life

like your own flesh

like a weight
19 What is the poem's thesis?
One should avoid grief at all cost.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

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

One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.
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?
Thickening

I will

Then you

The thing is
22 What is personified in the poem?
Life

Grief and Life

Love

Grief
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?
It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

It is used in formal settings.

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

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?
Nature

Denial

Transformation

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

fake

historical

praise

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