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 instructs readers to love life even amidst the difficult heaviness of grief.

The speaker tells her lover to bring over her pain.

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.
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"?
Resilience and Agency

Avoiding Grief

Loving Life

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?"
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 a figure that sits with you.

As an enemy.

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

As tropical heat.
9 Define "violet."
A bluish-purple color

Another word for violence

A shade of red

A flower
10 Which is not a symbol in the poem?
Stomach

Lambs

Tropical Heat

Burnt Paper
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"?
First Person

Third Person

Second Person

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

Iambic Tetrameter

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"

"and everything you’ve held dear"

"crumbles like burnt paper in your hands"
15 Which quote contains an example of assonance?
"your throat filled with the silt of it"

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

"when you have no stomach for it"

"When grief sits with you, its tropical heat"
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?
Hopeful, Optimistic, Submissive

Optimistic, Resilient, Loving

Bitter, Resentful, Rageful

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

as if you are pummeled

like your life

like a weight
19 What is the poem's thesis?
One should hold grief like the face of a lover.

One should avoid grief at all cost.

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

One should have a charming smile to make good impressions.
20 Which is one way that grief is not characterized?
An overabundance of flesh.

A baby to be held.

Tropical heat.

A presence that sits with you.
21 Which is an anaphora in the poem?
Thickening

The thing is

I will

Then you
22 What is personified in the poem?
Grief

Love

Life

Grief and Life
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?
Denial

Nature

Transformation

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

historical

Instagram

praise

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