The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

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

Indigo

Like a Beggar

The Human Line

Mules of Love
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 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?

Nobel Peace Prize

Lambda Literary Award

Rattle Poetry Prize

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

Loving Life

Avoiding Grief

Resilience and Agency

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.

Resilience does not appear as a concept 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.
7 How does Bass write about the body in "The Thing Is?"

Grief wrecks the human body and should be avoided at all cost.

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.
8 How is life personified in the poem?

As a figure that sits with you.

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

As an enemy.

As tropical heat.
9 Define "violet."

A flower

Another word for violence

A bluish-purple color

A shade of red
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

Shrewd, Ironic

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

Third Person

All of the perspectives

Second Person

First Person
13 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic Tetrameter

Blank Verse

Iambic Pentameter

Free verse
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?

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"

"your throat filled with the silt of it"

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

"when you have no stomach for it"
16 What is an example of irony in this poem?

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

When everything dear crumbles like burnt paper.

When grief is portrayed as tropical heat.

Bass does not use irony in this poem.
17 Which best describes the tone of the poem?

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

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

like your own flesh

like your life

like a weight

as if you are pummeled
19 What is the poem's thesis?

One should avoid grief at all cost.

One should choose to love life in any circumstances, including grief.

One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

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.

An overabundance of flesh.

Tropical heat.

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

Thickening

Then you

I will

The thing is
22 What is personified in the poem?

Love

Grief and Life

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 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?

Transformation

Denial

Despair

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

Instagram

praise

fake

historical

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