The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

1 What collection was "The Thing Is" published in?
Mules of Love

The Human Line

Like a Beggar

Indigo
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
2018

2010

2002

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?
Nobel Peace Prize

Lambda Literary Award

Rattle Poetry Prize

Pulitzer Prize
5 Which is not a theme in "The Thing Is"?
Grief and the Body

Resilience and Agency

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.

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?"
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.

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 a figure that sits with you.

As tropical heat.

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

As an enemy.
9 Define "violet."
Another word for violence

A bluish-purple color

A flower

A shade of red
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

Conversational, Accessible

Shrewd, Ironic

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

Third Person

Second Person

First Person
13 What is the poem's meter?
Blank Verse

Free verse

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Tetrameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"to love life, to love it even"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"when you have no stomach for it"

"your throat filled with the silt of 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?
When the air of grief is more fit for gills than lungs.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.

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

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful
18 Finish this quote: "when grief weights you down___"
like your life

like a weight

as if you are pummeled

like your own flesh
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 baby to be held.

A presence that sits with you.

An overabundance of flesh.

Tropical heat.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
I will

Then you

Thickening

The thing is
22 What is personified in the poem?
Grief

Life

Grief and 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 part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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?
Denial

Nature

Despair

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

historical

Instagram

fake

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