The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

The Human Line

Indigo

Mules of Love

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

2018

2002

1977

2010
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

The speaker describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

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

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

Rattle Poetry Prize

Pulitzer Prize

Lambda Literary Award

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

Resilience and Agency

Grief and the Body

Loving Life

Avoiding Grief
6 How does the concept of resilience appear 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.

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?"

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 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

Another word for violence

A shade of red

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

Lambs

Burnt Paper

Stomach

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

Bitter, Pensive

Conversational, Accessible

Shrewd, Ironic

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

First Person

Third Person

All of the perspectives

Second Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Blank Verse

Iambic Tetrameter

Free verse

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?

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"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 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.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

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

as if you are pummeled

like a weight

like your life

like your own flesh
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?

A baby to be held.

An overabundance of flesh.

Tropical heat.

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

I will

Then you

Thickening

The thing is
22 What is personified in the poem?

Grief and Life

Love

Life

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

It is used in formal settings.

It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.

It is used in the court of law to introduce a case.

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.
24 What is something that Bass has expressed is important to her in terms of her poetic craft?

Nature

Despair

Transformation

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

praise

historical

fake

Instagram

The Thing Is Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Thing Is is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

Study Guide for The Thing Is

The Thing Is study guide contains a biography of Ellen Bass, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Read the Study Guide for The Thing Is…