The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Indigo

The Human Line

Like a Beggar

Mules of Love
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?

2010

1977

2002

2018
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?

The speaker describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

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 instructs readers to love life even amidst the difficult heaviness of grief.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?

Pulitzer Prize

Rattle Poetry Prize

Lambda Literary Award

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

Resilience and Agency

Loving Life

Avoiding Grief

Grief and the Body
6 How does the concept of resilience appear in the poem?

Resilience does not appear as a concept 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.
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.

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 an enemy.

As tropical heat.

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

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

A bluish-purple color

A flower

Another word for violence

A shade of red
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?

Burnt Paper

Stomach

Tropical Heat

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

Shrewd, Ironic

Joyful, Celebratory

Bitter, Pensive

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

All of the perspectives

First Person

Third Person

Second Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic Pentameter

Free verse

Iambic Tetrameter

Blank Verse
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"to love life, to love it even"
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 everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

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

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Pensive, Resentful, Prideful
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"

as if you are pummeled

like your life

like your own flesh

like a weight
19 What is the poem's thesis?

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.

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

Then you

I will
22 What is personified in the poem?

Love

Grief

Grief and Life

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

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

It is part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

It is used in formal settings.

It is used to introduce an explanation or issue.
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.

historical

fake

praise

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