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

1977

2010

2002
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 tells her lover to bring over her pain.

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

Rattle Poetry Prize

Lambda Literary Award

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

Avoiding Grief

Resilience and Agency

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

The speaker argues that one must choose to love life even in difficult circumstances.

Resilience does not appear as a concept in the poem.

The word "resilience" appears twice in quick succession.
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.

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.
8 How is life personified in the poem?
As tropical heat.

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

As an enemy.

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

A shade of red

A bluish-purple color

Another word for violence
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
Burnt Paper

Lambs

Tropical Heat

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

Conversational, Accessible

Joyful, Celebratory

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

Second Person

First Person

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

Iambic Tetrameter

Free verse

Iambic Pentameter
14 Which quote contains an example of alliteration?
"to love life, to love it even"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"

"and everything you’ve held dear"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"when you have no stomach for it"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

"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 grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

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

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

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

as if you are pummeled

like a weight

like your life
19 What is the poem's thesis?
One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.

One should avoid grief at all cost.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

One should choose to love life in any circumstances, including grief.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
An overabundance of flesh.

A presence that sits with you.

A baby to be held.

Tropical heat.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
The thing is

I will

Thickening

Then you
22 What is personified in the poem?
Life

Love

Grief and Life

Grief
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?
Denial

Transformation

Nature

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

fake

historical

praise

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