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?

2018

2010

1977

2002
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 describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

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.
4 What award did Mules of Love receive?

Lambda Literary Award

Pulitzer Prize

Rattle Poetry Prize

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

Grief and the Body

Loving Life

Avoiding Grief

Resilience and Agency
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.

The speaker argues that readers should succumb to their grief.

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.

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.
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 shade of red

A bluish-purple color

A flower

Another word for violence
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?

Conversational, Accessible

Joyful, Celebratory

Bitter, Pensive

Shrewd, Ironic
12 Which points of view appear in "The Thing Is"?

Third Person

Second Person

First Person

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

Blank Verse

Free verse

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?

"Then you hold life like a face"

"to love life, to love it even"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"and everything you’ve held dear"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?

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

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"when you have no stomach for it"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"
16 What is an example of irony in this poem?

Bass does not use irony in this poem.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

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

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

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 your life

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

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.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?

An overabundance of flesh.

A presence that sits with you.

Tropical heat.

A baby to be held.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?

The thing is

Thickening

Then you

I will
22 What is personified in the poem?

Love

Life

Grief and Life

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

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.

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

Transformation

Denial

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

fake

Instagram

historical

praise

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