The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Indigo

Like a Beggar

Mules of Love
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
2010

2002

1977

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 describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?
Pulitzer Prize

Lambda Literary Award

Rattle Poetry Prize

Nobel Peace Prize
5 Which is not a theme in "The Thing Is"?
Resilience and Agency

Avoiding Grief

Grief and the Body

Loving Life
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.

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

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

The human body does not appear in the poem.
8 How is life personified in the poem?
As a figure that sits with you.

As an enemy.

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

As tropical heat.
9 Define "violet."
A bluish-purple color

Another word for violence

A shade of red

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

Burnt Paper

Lambs

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

Shrewd, Ironic

Bitter, Pensive

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

First Person

Third Person

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

Free verse

Blank Verse

Iambic Tetrameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"to love life, to love it even"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"Then you hold life like a face"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"when you have no stomach for it"

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

"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 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

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful
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 choose to love life in any circumstances, including grief.

One should avoid grief at all cost.

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

A presence that sits with you.

An overabundance of flesh.

Tropical heat.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
The thing is

Then you

Thickening

I will
22 What is personified in the poem?
Grief

Love

Grief and Life

Life
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?
It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.

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.
24 What is something that Bass has expressed is important to her in terms of her poetic craft?
Nature

Transformation

Despair

Denial
25 Bass calls herself a(n) ___ poet.
historical

Instagram

praise

fake

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