Card 0 of 315
Adapted from Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in Leaves of Grass (1855)
1
Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.
2
The impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day,
The simple, compact, well-join’d scheme, myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated yet part of the scheme,
The similitudes of the past and those of the future,
The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage over the river,
The current rushing so swiftly and swimming with me far away,
The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them,
The certainty of others, the life, love, sight, hearing of others.
Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high,
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
3
It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d,
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
I too many and many a time cross’d the river of old,
Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow,
Saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging toward the south,
Saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams . . .
The narrator’s tone in lines 1-3 (underlined) is best described as which of the following?
There is a clear sense of wonder about the everyday world, emphasized through the use of exclamation marks. This suggests jubilation.
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Adapted from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729)
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
Which of the following best describes the tone of the underlined sentence?
The best description of the tone is sarcastic, or ironic. Swift demonstrates skillful sarcasm when he "humbly offers" that a hundred thousand children be offered for sale "plump and fat for a good table." His offer is not meant to be humble or practical, but rather outrageous and ironic.
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Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)
I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.
The author's tone in the first stanza can best be described as __________.
The tone in the first stanza is largely sad or “melancholy,” as the narrator mentions his or her “woes.” We can see that the narrator feels abandoned by his or her companions and that he or she is overcome by the “shadows of life.” It is not a "mocking" tone, as there is no derision or humor in it. One cannot say it is "conclusive," as there does not seem to be any conclusion or theory drawn. Likewise, we might say it is "modest," yet the modesty comes from the sadness.
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Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
The tone of the poem can be described as __________.
The tone can be described as scathing and dissatisfied because of the harsh, critical language the poet uses to describe springtime and existence. When analyzing tone, it is important to look for key, notable words or phrases that stand out, in this case "idiot" in the last line, "an empty cup" in line 15, are clear indicators of a generally negative tone. Phrases and lines such as "it is not enough" and "But what does that signify?" suggest a sense of dissatisfaction.
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Passage adapted from "To Some Ladies" (1817) by John Keats
What though while the wonders of nature exploring,
I cannot your light, mazy footsteps attend;
Nor listen to accents, that almost adoring,
Bless Cynthia's face, the enthusiast's friend:
(5) Yet over the steep, whence the mountain stream rushes,
With you, kindest friends, in idea I rove;
Mark the clear tumbling crystal, its passionate gushes,
Its spray that the wild flower kindly bedews.
Why linger you so, the wild labyrinth strolling?
(10) Why breathless, unable your bliss to declare?
Ah! you list to the nightingale's tender condoling,
Responsive to sylphs, in the moon beamy air.
'Tis morn, and the flowers with dew are yet drooping,
I see you are treading the verge of the sea:
(15) And now! ah, I see it—you just now are stooping
To pick up the keep-sake intended for me.
If a cherub, on pinions of silver descending,
Had brought me a gem from the fret-work of heaven;
And smiles, with his star-cheering voice sweetly blending,
(20) The blessings of Tighe had melodiously given;
It had not created a warmer emotion
Than the present, fair nymphs, I was blest with from you,
Than the shell, from the bright golden sands of the ocean
Which the emerald waves at your feet gladly threw.
(25) For, indeed, 'tis a sweet and peculiar pleasure,
(And blissful is he who such happiness finds,)
To possess but a span of the hour of leisure,
In elegant, pure, and aerial minds.
The speaker's overall tone can best be described as _____________.
The author uses expressive, extremely romantic language throughout the poem. The heightened tone of the language often rises to the melodramatic. This question could also have been solved by eliminating the other options. The tone of the poem can, at its most dire, be described as melancholic. All of the other options suggest a tone that is far more negative than the one seen in the poem.
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Passage adapted from "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818)
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
How does the author create a tone of irony in this poem?
Shelley creates irony in "Ozymandias" by riffing on the king's arrogance. Ozymandias believes his kingdom will exist forever, so he builds a statue to ensure he earns credit for his work long after death. In the present, the kingdom is nowhere to be found and all that remains is the wreckage of his statue, essentially giving Ozymandias credit for a kingdom that did not stand the test of time; exactly the opposite of his intent.
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Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!(5)
From the molten golden-notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!(10)
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
What is the tone of this passage?
Poe’s joyful descriptions of the titular bells makes “euphoric,” or elated, the best description for the passage’s tone. The work is hardly dilettantish (amateur) or diabolical (fiendishly evil). It is also not equivocal (ambiguous) or bemused (puzzled, bewildered).
Passage adapted from "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe (1850)
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… Come, my friends,
’T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths (5)
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
What is the tone of lines 1-6?
These lines implore, urge, or exhort the audience to join the speaker on his imminent journey. They are not insinuating (suggestive), imprecating (cursing), or extorting (coercing money from). They are also not admonishing, or cautionary, lines; rather, they encourage the listeners to throw caution to the wind.
Passage adapted from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” (1842).
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1 Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell:
No god, no demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell.
Then to my human heart I turn at once--
5 Heart! Thou and I are here sad and alone;
Say, wherefore did I laugh? O mortal pain!
O darkness! darkness! ever must I moan,
To question heaven and hell and heart in vain!
9 Why did I laugh? I know this being's lease--
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads:
Yet could I on this very midnight cease,
And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds.
13 Verse, fame, and beauty are intense indeed,
But death intenser--death is life's high meed.
(1819)
The speaker's tone in this poem is best described as _________________.
The tone of the poem could be described as "awe-struck and insistent." As early as the first line--"Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell"--the speaker is expressing awe and wonderment at something he cannot understand. Therefore the tone is "awe-struck." The tone could also be described as "insistent" because the speaker returns insistently to the same question again and again.
Passage adapted from "Why did I laugh tonight?" by John Keats (1819)
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard; (5)
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea; (10)
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
(1886)
What is the tone of this poem?
The poem is optimistic in its discussion of hope and hope’s merits. The meter and rhyme scheme are also short, light, and almost nursery rhyme-esque. The poem is certainly not melancholy (sad) or intransigent (stubborn and uncompromising). It is also not maudlin (excessively sentimental) or glamorous (beautiful, luxurious).
Passage adapted from Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the Thing With Feathers” (1886)
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1 'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill
2 Appear in writing or in judging ill;
3 But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence
4 To tire our patience, than mislead our sense.
5 Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
6 Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
7 A fool might once himself alone expose,
8 Now one in verse makes many more in prose.
9 'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
10 Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
11 In poets as true genius is but rare,
12 True taste as seldom is the critic's share;
13 Both must alike from Heav'n derive their light,
14 These born to judge, as well as those to write.
15 Let such teach others who themselves excel,
16 And censure freely who have written well.
17 Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
18 But are not critics to their judgment too?
(1711)
The tone of this passage could be characterized as __________________.
The tone of this passage could be described as "critical and light." The tone could be called "critical" because the speaker's main topic is criticizing critics, or poets, or quite possibly both. That is, the speaker is pointing out faults of bad critics--see for instance, lines 1, 2, and 12. The tone could also be characterized as "light" because the criticism is witty and good-natured, not harsh or angry.
Passage adapted from Alexander Pope's poem An Essay on Criticism (1711).
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1 Infer the wilds which next pertain.
2 Though travel here be still a walk,
3 Small heart was theirs for easy talk.
4 Oblivious of the bridle-rein
5 Rolfe fell to Lethe altogether,
6 Bewitched by that uncanny weather
7 Of sultry cloud. And home-sick grew
8 The banker. In his reverie blue
9 The cigarette, a summer friend,
10 Went out between his teeth—could lend
11 No solace, soothe him nor engage.
12 And now disrelished he each word
13 Of sprightly, harmless persiflage
14 Wherewith young Glaucon here would fain
15 Evince a jaunty disregard.
16 But hush betimes o’ertook the twain—
17 The more impressive, it may be,
18 For that the senior, somewhat spent,
19 Florid overmuch and corpulent,
20 Labored in lungs, and audibly.
(1876)
In lines 17-20 the tone is __________________.
The last four lines of this passage take on a distinctly humorous or comic tone. The poet here describes how the elder of the two travelers is out of shape and therefore huffing and puffing as they go along. The way this is presented is humorous in part because the poet lists this as a reason why it is surprising the two could be silent. It also appears comic because of how much it contrasts with the more serious, even dreary, preceding lines.
Passage adapted from Herman Melville's epic poem Clarel (1876).
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Passage adapted from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813)
"Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced ; their behavior at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general ; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies ; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of being agreeable where they chose it ; but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank ; and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England ; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade."
This passage is an example of what type of narration?
The answer is free indirect discourse. Jane Austen was the first to formalize this type of narration and its conception remains a significant part of her legacy. FID is a special kind of third-person narration where the narrator moves back and forth between omniscient narration and a character's subjective point of view without making this clear in the text. An example from this passage is the phrase : "and \[they\] were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves." This is the perspective of a character within the story that the narrator is detailing, yet the reader is informed as if the narrator held this belief themselves.
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On thy stupendous summit, rock sublime!
That o’er the channel reared, half way at sea
The mariner at early morning hails,
I would recline; while Fancy should go forth,
And represent the strange and awful hour 5
Of vast concussion; when the Omnipotent
Stretched forth his arm, and rent the solid hills,
Bidding the impetuous main flood rush between
The rifted shores, and from the continent
Eternally divided this green isle. 10
Imperial lord of the high southern coast!
From thy projecting head-land I would mark
Far in the east the shades of night disperse,
Melting and thinned, as from the dark blue wave
Emerging, brilliant rays of arrowy light 15
Dart from the horizon; when the glorious sun
Just lifts above it his resplendent orb.
Advances now, with feathery silver touched,
The rippling tide of flood; glisten the sands,
While, inmates of the chalky clefts that scar 20
Thy sides precipitous, with shrill harsh cry,
Their white wings glancing in the level beam,
The terns, and gulls, and tarrocks, seek their food,
And thy rough hollows echo to the voice
Of the gray choughs, and ever restless daws, 25
With clamor, not unlike the chiding hounds,
While the lone shepherd, and his baying dog,
Drive to thy turfy crest his bleating flock.
The high meridian of the day is past,
And Ocean now, reflecting the calm Heaven, 30
Is of cerulean hue; and murmurs low
The tide of ebb, upon the level sands.
The sloop, her angular canvas shifting still,
Catches the light and variable airs
That but a little crisp the summer sea, 35
Dimpling its tranquil surface.
The mood of the final eight lines, following the break after line 28, can best be described as __________________.
The two words that best describe the mood of the final eight lines are tranquil and reflective. After a series of lines devoted to describing a noisy scene of birds and dogs, the speaker notes that "the high meridian of the day is past." The final eight lines contain words suggesting calmness: the ocean "reflects the calm Heaven" and "murmurs low"; a sailboat "catches the light and variable airs" and dimples the sea's "tranquil surface." These phrases suggest a tranquil and reflective mood, certainly not one that is melancholy and regretful or lonely and distressed. The speaker is alone but not lonely. The speaker is also not light-hearted and amused, nor ebullient and optimistic. The lines are entirely focused on reflecting quietly on the present moment.
Passage adapted from Charlotte Smith's "Beach Head" (1807)
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Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)
1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
9 Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
10 But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12 Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
13 Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
The tone of this sonnet is best described as .
The tone of this sonnet, with its call for divine ravishing and violence, can best be described as sensual.
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Passage adapted from Sonnet 12 by William Shakespeare (1609)
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard;
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing 'gainst Time’s scythe can make defense
Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence.
The speaker believes that ________________ is the only way to immortalize oneself against the passage of time.
The word "breed" in line 14 "Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence" refers to a man having children. "To brave him" is to defy time itself, "him" here referring to "Time" in line 13. "When he takes thee hence" is a metaphor for death, meaning "when time takes you away."
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I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
(1633)
The speaker’s tone is best described as _______________.
The speaker's extravagant and sustained metaphors for love indicate a sense of celebration and enthusiasm. The poem is a kind of rhapsody about love.
While the speaker is certainly devoted to the idea of love, he imagines that love as equal, so "obsequious" doesn't fit. And while the speaker also mediates on the idea of "fancies," he ultimately sees these as inferior to the love he's now achieved; "whimsical," therefore, doesn't fit either.
Passage adapted from John Donne's "The Good Morrow" (1633).
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A Late Walk
1 When I go up through the mowing field,
2 The headless aftermath,
3 Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
4 Half closes the garden path.
5 And when I come to the garden ground,
6 The whir of sober birds
7 Up from the tangle of withered weeds
8 Is sadder than any words
9 A tree beside the wall stands bare,
10 But a leaf that lingered brown,
11 Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
12 Comes softly rattling down.
13 I end not far from my going forth
14 By picking the faded blue
15 Of the last remaining aster flower
16 To carry again to you.
The tone of the poem can best be described as .
The elegiac style of the poem, as it is literally about the passing of a growing season and the coming of winter, depicts nostalgia.
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Passage adapted from "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence (1918)
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
Which word best describes the overall tone of this poem?
While several of these words describe feelings the speaker experiences throughout the poem, "Nostalgia" is the poem's most persistent mood. The speaker's feeling of sadness and grief for loss of the past is rooted in memories of his mother playing the piano, of which he is reminded when he hears the woman singing in the first line. Without reminiscing on the past, the speaker would feel no "melancholy," "disillusionment," or "betrayal," for its passing.
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… It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And tie my tie once more.
While waves far off in a pale rose twilight
Crash on a white sand shore.
I stand by a mirror and comb my hair:(5)
How small and white my face!—
The green earth tilts through a sphere of air
And bathes in a flame of space.
There are houses hanging above the stars
And stars hung under a sea... (10)
And a sun far off in a shell of silence
Dapples my walls for me....
(1919)
How could the tone of this passage best be described?
The passage shows a quiet, solemn respect for the narrator’s surroundings and lends itself to a reverent tone. The passage is neither jaded (cynical) nor sardonic (sarcastic). It is also not sycophantic (obsequious, flattering) or allusive (referential).
Passage adapted from Conrad Aiken’s “Morning Song From ‘Senlin.’” Modern American Poetry, ed.Louis Untermeyer. (1919)
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