The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Indigo

Like a Beggar

Mules of Love

The Human Line
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 instructs readers to love life even amidst the difficult heaviness of grief.

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

The speaker holds her despair the way she held her babies when they were young.

The speaker describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?

Nobel Peace Prize

Rattle Poetry Prize

Lambda Literary Award

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

Grief and the Body

Avoiding Grief

Loving Life

Resilience and Agency
6 How does the concept of resilience appear in the poem?

The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.

Resilience does not appear as a concept in the poem.

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?"

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

As an enemy.

As a figure that sits with you.
9 Define "violet."

A flower

Another word for violence

A shade of red

A bluish-purple color
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?

Lambs

Stomach

Tropical Heat

Burnt Paper
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"?

Second Person

First Person

All of the perspectives

Third Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Blank Verse

Free verse

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter
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?

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

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

"when you have no stomach for it"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"
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?

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"

as if you are pummeled

like your life

like a weight

like your own flesh
19 What is the poem's thesis?

One should choose to love life in any circumstances, including grief.

One should avoid grief at all cost.

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?

A presence that sits with you.

An overabundance of flesh.

A baby to be held.

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

The thing is

Thickening

Then you

I will
22 What is personified in the poem?

Love

Grief and Life

Grief

Life
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 to introduce an explanation or issue.

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

Despair

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

Instagram

praise

fake

historical

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