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?
1977

2002

2018

2010
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?
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.

The speaker holds her despair the way she held her babies when they were young.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?
Rattle Poetry Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

Pulitzer Prize

Lambda Literary Award
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?"
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 having a "plain face" with "no charming smile" or "violet eyes."

As tropical heat.

As an enemy.
9 Define "violet."
A bluish-purple color

A flower

Another word for violence

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

Stomach

Lambs

Burnt Paper
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"?
Second Person

First Person

All of the perspectives

Third Person
13 What is the poem's meter?
Blank Verse

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter

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

"Then you hold life like a face"

"to love life, to love it even"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"when you have no stomach for it"

"only more of it, an obesity of grief,"
16 What is an example of irony in this poem?
When the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

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

like a weight

like your life

like your own flesh
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?
An overabundance of flesh.

A baby to be held.

Tropical heat.

A presence that sits with you.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
Then you

Thickening

I will

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

Love

Life

Grief
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?
Despair

Transformation

Nature

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

praise

historical

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