The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

1 What collection was "The Thing Is" published in?
Like a Beggar

The Human Line

Mules of Love

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

2002

2018

1977
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?
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.

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

The speaker instructs readers to love life even amidst the difficult heaviness of grief.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?
Nobel Peace Prize

Lambda Literary Award

Rattle Poetry Prize

Pulitzer 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 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.

The word "resilience" appears twice in quick succession.
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 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.
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 bluish-purple color

A shade of red

Another word for violence

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

Burnt Paper

Tropical Heat

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

Shrewd, Ironic

Conversational, Accessible

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

Second Person

Third Person

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

Blank Verse

Iambic Tetrameter

Iambic Pentameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"to love life, to love it even"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"and everything you’ve held dear"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"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?
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.

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

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

as if you are pummeled

like your own flesh

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

One should avoid grief at all cost.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
An overabundance of flesh.

A presence that sits with you.

A baby to be held.

Tropical heat.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
Then you

Thickening

I will

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

Life

Grief and Life

Love
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 formal settings.

It is used in the court of law to introduce a case.
24 What is something that Bass has expressed is important to her in terms of her poetic craft?
Despair

Nature

Denial

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

Instagram

fake

praise

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