Card 0 of 155
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.
What does the speaker believe caused the "leaf that lingered brown" (line 10) to come "softly rattling down" (line 12)?
In line 11, the speaker expresses the belief that it fell as a result of his thoughts: "Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought."
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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 metaphysical conceit of the "usurp'd town" (line 5) turns at line 9 to .
The metaphysical conceit of the "usurp'd town" (line 5) turns at line 9 to the metaphor of an already engaged lover "betroth'd unto your enemy" (line 10). A metaphysical conceit is simply an extended metaphor with rather complex logic.
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1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
Were this poem to have a topic sentence, it would very probably be which line?
Were this poem to have a topic sentence, it would be "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1). Line 1 clearly states the speaker's intent to count the ways that he or she loves.
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1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
What does the speaker indicate is more powerful than his or her love?
According to lines 13 and 14, "and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death," only God is more powerful than the speaker's love.
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1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
The speaker compares loving "purely" (line 8) to .
The speaker compares loving "purely" to humility, as the speaker loves like men who "turn from Praise" (line 8).
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1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Within his or her poetry, the speaker claims that his or her beloved will remain __________.
Within his or her poetry, the speaker claims that his or her beloved will remain alive and fair.
"But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,"
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1 Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
2 Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;
3 Call Imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
4 Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
5 Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
6 Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust;
7 If Man alone engross not Heav'n's high care,
8 Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
9 Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
10 Re-judge his justice, be the GOD of GOD!
11 In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies;
12 All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
13 Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
14 Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
15 Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
16 Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel;
17 And who but wishes to invert the laws
18 Of ORDER, sins against th' Eternal Cause.
(1734)
According to the speaker, what is man’s greatest sin?
Pride is man’s greatest sin because “In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies” (line 11). Lines 1-8 show man judging and questioning the opinion of “Providence” (line 2). Lines 9-10 show that man tries to "Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod” (line 9) as well as “re-judge His justice, be the God of God.” Line 11 suggests that it is "pride, . . . reasoning pride," that causes man to try and take God’s place, and lines 17-18 claim that whoever tries to do so, “sins against the Eternal Cause.”
(Passage adapted from "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope, I.IV.1-18)
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1 'So careful of the type?' but no.
2 From scarped cliff and quarried stone
3 She cries, `A thousand types are gone:
4 I care for nothing, all shall go.
5 'Thou makest thine appeal to me:
6 I bring to life, I bring to death:
7 The spirit does but mean the breath:
8 I know no more.' And he, shall he,
9 Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
10 Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
11 Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
12 Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
13 Who trusted God was love indeed
14 And love Creation's final law—
15 Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
16 With ravine, shriek'd against his creed—
17 Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills,
18 Who battled for the True, the Just,
19 Be blown about the desert dust,
20 Or seal'd within the iron hills?
21 No more? A monster then, a dream,
22 A discord. Dragons of the prime,
23 That tare each other in their slime,
24 Were mellow music match'd with him.
25 O life as futile, then, as frail!
26 O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
27 What hope of answer, or redress?
28 Behind the veil, behind the veil.
(1849)
The speaker questions if __________ will “be blown about the desert dust/ Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20).
The speaker questions if Man will “be blown about the desert dust / Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20). Lines 19-20 are the end of a complete thought that began with line 9, "Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,". The poet questions whether Man, who does all the actions listed in lines 11-14 and lines 17-18, will be “be blown about the desert dust / Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20) because Nature "red in tooth and claw / With ravine, shriek'd against his creed" (lines 15-16).
(Passage adapted from "In Memorium A. H. H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson, LVI.1-28)
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Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
What does God "father" in line 10?
God fathers change. In lines 7-5, the speaker is saying that "whatever is fickle" (line 8) "He fathers" (line 10). If something is "fickle," it is changing constantly. "All things counter, original, spare, strange" also supports the fact that the speaker believes God fathers change. In line 10, the speaker further states that God fathers change because God's "beauty is past change."
(Passage adapted from "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins)
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Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
The underlined and bolded excerpt is most accurately paraphrased by which of the following?
The speaker is here explaining the parameters of the relationship he or she would like with death, and through this is demonstrating his or her beliefs about true, platonic friendship. His or her statement that he or she “will not harry \[Death’s\] treasure-graves” suggests that the speaker is not looking for death’s rewards, power, or wisdom. He or she is not explaining why he or she wishes to travel, merely asserting that he or she “craves” to do so" and making assurances about the parameter of the companion relationship. The speaker does not demonstrate either fear or ambivalence, and is actively asking for Death’s companionship, not rejecting Death’s advances.
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Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
The bolded and underlined phrase “Escaped from chaos” most likely refers to what?
“Escaped from chaos" refers to the origins of the personified character of “mother Night." This sets up a basic order in which “Night” emerged from chaos, and gave “father-less” birth to “Death.”
The speaker is not concerned with escaping Death at all, and specifically suggests that her goal in seeking Death’s companionship is not escape but partnership and peace.
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Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
Which of the following is an important contrast at play in the poem?
The contrast of corporeal reality and an abstract view of the universe is an important contrast throughout this poem. The physical realm is attended to with imagery and an extended personification of abstract concepts (Night and Death, also the last stanza ties the personification of Death to the physicality of “the wind, the light, the river”), and with attention to the physical realities of death (“men’s sobs and curses”).
Moral judgments like “good and evil” are not at play in the work, nor is the question of nature and science. While darkness is an overriding theme, and light appears at the end of the poem, they are not directly contrasted. While one might expect a poem about death to have religious overtones, there are no overt religious overtones present in this poem.
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Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
The use of the underlined and bolded term “Solitary” at the opening of the poem serves which of the following purposes?
Opening the poem with personified “Death” as a solitary figure adds emotional resonance and purchase to the speaker’s subsequent plea to Death for them to be companions. This way, the closing image of Death embracing the speaker completes an emotional journey; Death started the poem alone and ends in an embrace. This change can be seem as mutually beneficial and supportive, rather than the speaker simply using Death or vice-versa.
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Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
In the underlined lines, "to all compassion gives" most closely means which of the following?
In this context, "The well-taught philosophic mind / to all compassion gives" most closely means that such a mind is compassionate towards everyone. "All" in this context refers to all sentient beings, not the compassion. While it stands to reason that the speaker would think that all good philosophers would be, by nature, compassionate, not all philosophers are held to be good, and not all "well-taught philosophic mind\[s\]" are philosophers by trade.
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Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
Which of the following is a reasonable paraphrase of the underlined stanza?
The most accurate paraphrase of the highlighted expert is "Do not tarnish your home by killing an innocent being in it, and do not take pride in your power over a lowly, powerless creature." In this context, the "hospitable hearth" is the addressee's home, the "stain\[ing\]" of this home is most likely to be a metaphorical tarnishing. In this context "triumph" most closely means "take pride."
The stanza focuses on the lowly, powerless innocence of the mouse, not the fact that he has shared the home (unwillingly as a prisoner). There is no real concern for the moral standing of science in general, only for the addressee's morality.
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Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
The underlined lines in the last stanza can most accurately be characterized as which of the following?
The highlighted excerpt is most accurately characterized as an attempt to illustrate the shared elements of existence between humans and animals. The reference to "destruction lurk\[ing\] unseen" is intended to draw a parallel between humans and mice (or any mortal creature); it is not a threat (since there is no demand made in exchange for the aversion of the "destruction"), and it is not a warning of a specific impending catastrophe. While such a reference certainly has resonances with the wrath of a vengeful deity, in the context of the reference of the poem, this reference is clearly intended to draw on similarities between humans and other mortal creatures. The potential destruction is "unseen" and therefore difficult to attribute to humans directly in this context.
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Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)
The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."
Which of these best describes the birds' reaction to the man?
The author says, quite specifically that the hedgerow birds “regard him not.” In this case, the man does not impact their lives in any way as he goes unnoticed. We can also say that they “don't notice” him. We know they don't have any feelings towards him as there is no evidence in the poem to support this. We also know that they don't watch him as they “regard him not.” Furthermore, the birds are not making an effort to avoid the man and the man likewise is not avoiding the birds; they are peacefully coexistent.
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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.
In line 9, "it is apparent that" most closely means __________.
In this context, the phrase "It is apparent that" most closely means "it seems that." The author is contrasting the seeming rebirth of nature during the spring with the reality of death.
While sometimes the phrase "it is apparent that" can mean "it is obvious that" or it is manifest that," it does not mean either of those things in this context. If it were truly obvious (or even possible) that there were no death, then the speaker would not go on to describe concrete images that confirm the existence of death in lines 11-12.
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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 phrases "the spikes of the crocus" and "the redness of the leaves opening stickily" serve the purpose of __________.
The phrases "spikes of the crocus" and "the redness of the leaves opening stickily" serve all of the purposes listed. On the surface level, these phrases describe botanical imagery. However, the word "spike," while describing the shape of the crocus flower, also suggests a literal spike, something that is dangerous or could be used as a weapon. The words "redness" and "stickily" can have connotations of blood or wounds. These gruesome images foreshadow the macabre imagery that occurs in lines 11-12.
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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 metaphors in lines 13-15 are used to express __________.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is said to be another thing that is unrelated to it in a literal sense, for the purpose of suggesting a resemblance between the two. The metaphors in these lines compare life to nothing, an empty cup, and a flight of uncarpeted stairs. These statements suggest that life is meaningless because it does not fill a purpose (as uncarpeted stairs and an empty cup fail to truly fulfill their purposes). Life is thereby absurd and hollow or empty.
While the comparison of life to a staircase might symbolize a "stairway to heaven" in some contexts, the absence of support in the rest of the poem for the notion of an afterlife would make this interpretation too much of a stretch.
Neither do these metaphors suggest that life is a thing of wonder, but rather that it is nothing at all (or at least, nothing of any importance).
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