The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

The Human Line

Like a Beggar

Mules of Love
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 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.

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

Lambda Literary Award

Nobel Peace Prize

Rattle Poetry Prize
5 Which is not a theme in "The Thing Is"?
Loving Life

Grief and the Body

Avoiding Grief

Resilience and Agency
6 How does the concept of resilience appear in the poem?
The word "resilience" appears twice in quick succession.

The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.

The speaker argues that one must choose to love life even in difficult circumstances.

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

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.
8 How is life personified in the poem?
As tropical heat.

As an enemy.

As a figure that sits with you.

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

A shade of red

Another word for violence

A bluish-purple color
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?
Bitter, Pensive

Joyful, Celebratory

Shrewd, Ironic

Conversational, Accessible
12 Which points of view appear in "The Thing Is"?
Third Person

Second Person

First Person

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

Iambic Tetrameter

Blank Verse

Free verse
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?
"when you have no stomach for it"

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

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"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.

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.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"
like your life

like your own flesh

like a weight

as if you are pummeled
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 baby to be held.

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

Thickening

Then you

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

Love

Grief and Life

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

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

Denial

Nature

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

Instagram

praise

historical

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