The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Mules of Love

Like a Beggar

Indigo

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

2002

2010

1977

2018
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?

Lambda Literary Award

Pulitzer Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

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

Loving Life

Resilience and Agency

Avoiding Grief

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.

Resilience does not appear as a concept in the poem.

The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.
7 How does Bass write about the body in "The Thing Is?"

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.

Not only does experiencing grief affect various parts of the human body, but grief is given its own bodily presence in the poem.
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."

Another word for violence

A flower

A bluish-purple color

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

Burnt Paper

Stomach

Lambs

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

Joyful, Celebratory

Conversational, Accessible

Shrewd, Ironic

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

First Person

All of the perspectives

Second Person

Third Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Free verse

Iambic Pentameter

Blank Verse

Iambic Tetrameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?

"to love life, to love it even"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"and everything you’ve held dear"
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 the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"

like your own flesh

like your life

as if you are pummeled

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

One should avoid grief at all cost.

One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.

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?

An overabundance of flesh.

A baby to be held.

A presence that sits with you.

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

Then you

I will

Thickening

The thing is
22 What is personified in the poem?

Grief

Grief and Life

Love

Life
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?

It is used in formal settings.

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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?

Denial

Transformation

Nature

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

Instagram

historical

praise

fake

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