The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Mules of Love

The Human Line

Like a Beggar
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
1977

2010

2002

2018
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 describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

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

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?
Rattle Poetry Prize

Lambda Literary Award

Nobel Peace Prize

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

Resilience and Agency

Loving Life

Grief and the Body
6 How does the concept of resilience appear in the poem?
The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.

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.
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.

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

The human body does not appear in the poem.

Grief wrecks the human body and should be avoided at all cost.
8 How is life personified in the poem?
As an enemy.

As a figure that sits with you.

As tropical heat.

As having a "plain face" with "no charming smile" or "violet eyes."
9 Define "violet."
A flower

A bluish-purple color

A shade of red

Another word for violence
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?
Bitter, Pensive

Shrewd, Ironic

Joyful, Celebratory

Conversational, Accessible
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?
Iambic Tetrameter

Iambic Pentameter

Blank Verse

Free 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?
"your throat filled with the silt of it"

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

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"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 everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.

When the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?
Pensive, Resentful, Prideful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"
like your own flesh

like a weight

like your life

as if you are pummeled
19 What is the poem's thesis?
One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

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.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
A presence that sits with you.

Tropical heat.

A baby to be held.

An overabundance of flesh.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
The thing is

I will

Then you

Thickening
22 What is personified in the poem?
Grief and Life

Grief

Life

Love
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?
It is used in the court of law to introduce a case.

It is used in formal settings.

It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.

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

Denial

Transformation
25 Bass calls herself a(n) ___ poet.
fake

Instagram

historical

praise

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