The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Mules of Love

Indigo

The Human Line
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
2002

2010

2018

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

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

Nobel Peace Prize

Lambda Literary Award

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

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

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

The human body does not appear 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."
A shade of red

A flower

Another word for violence

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

Tropical Heat

Lambs

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

Joyful, Celebratory

Shrewd, Ironic

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

First Person

Third Person

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

Blank Verse

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"Then you hold life like a face"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"to love life, to love it even"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"when you have no stomach for it"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

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

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"
as if you are pummeled

like your own flesh

like a weight

like your life
19 What is the poem's thesis?
One should choose to love life in any circumstances, including grief.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

One should avoid grief at all cost.

One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
An overabundance of flesh.

A baby to be held.

Tropical heat.

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

Thickening

The thing is

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 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?
Transformation

Denial

Despair

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

fake

historical

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