The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Mules of Love

Indigo

The Human Line

Like a Beggar
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?

1977

2018

2002

2010
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?

Lambda Literary Award

Nobel Peace Prize

Pulitzer Prize

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

Grief and the Body

Loving Life

Avoiding Grief

Resilience and Agency
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?"

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

The human body does not appear in the poem.

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

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 a figure that sits with you.

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

As an enemy.

As tropical heat.
9 Define "violet."

Another word for violence

A bluish-purple color

A shade of red

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

Tropical Heat

Stomach

Burnt Paper

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

Joyful, Celebratory

Bitter, Pensive

Shrewd, Ironic

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

All of the perspectives

Second Person

Third Person

First Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter

Free verse

Blank Verse
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?

"Then you hold life like a face"

"to love life, to love it even"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

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

"when you have no stomach for it"
16 What is an example of irony in this poem?

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

When the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.

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

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful
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 hold grief like the face of a lover.

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.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?

Tropical heat.

A presence that sits with you.

An overabundance of flesh.

A baby to be held.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?

Thickening

The thing is

I will

Then you
22 What is personified in the poem?

Life

Grief and Life

Grief

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

It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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?

Nature

Transformation

Denial

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

Instagram

fake

historical

praise

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