Develop Thesis: Poetry Practice Test

Read the poem below.

Compost

In the bin, banana peels

blacken into softness.

Coffee grounds

lose their bitterness.

I stir the heap

and steam rises—

a breath from what was used.

Nothing disappears.

It only changes

into darker kindness,

into soil

that will not remember

the shape of hunger.

In spring, I spread it

under tomatoes

and think:

this is how forgiveness

might work,

if it were possible.

Which thesis best interprets the poem’s final comparison?

Read the poem below.

Elegy for a Voicemail

Your voice is a room

I can still enter

if I press 1.

The message begins

with your laugh—

an unlocked door.

Then the words:

Call me back.

As if time

were a hallway

we both could walk.

I keep it saved

until the phone updates

and the file vanishes,

cleaned out

like a forgotten drawer.

Now grief must speak

without your help.

Which thesis best analyzes how technology shapes the poem’s portrayal of grief?