The Thing Is Quizzes

The Thing Is Quiz

1 What collection was "The Thing Is" published in?
Like a Beggar

The Human Line

Indigo

Mules of Love
2 What year did the collection in which "The Thing Is" was first published come out?
2002

2010

1977

2018
3 Which best describes what "The Thing Is" is about?
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 describes God like a disappointed and grieving parent.

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

Lambda Literary Award

Nobel Peace Prize

Pulitzer 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 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.

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?"
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.

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

Burnt Paper

Tropical Heat

Stomach
11 Which best characterizes the voices in Bass's poems?
Joyful, Celebratory

Bitter, Pensive

Conversational, Accessible

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

Third Person

First Person

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

Iambic Tetrameter

Blank Verse

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

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"Then you hold life like a face"

"to love life, to love it even"
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 a weight

like your own flesh

like your life

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

One should avoid grief at all cost.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
A baby to be held.

An overabundance of flesh.

A presence that sits with you.

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

I will

Then you

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

Love

Grief

Life
23 What does the phrase "the thing is" mean?
It is used in formal settings.

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

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?
Despair

Nature

Denial

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

praise

historical

fake

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