Function of Specific Words: Poetry Practice Test

Read the poem below and answer the question that follows.

Title: “Night Shift”

At three a.m. the hospital corridor

is a long, bleached throat.

Shoes squeak; a cart rattles past

with blankets stacked like unspoken prayers.

In Room 14, the old man’s monitor

writes green cursive in the dark.

His daughter sleeps in a chair,

chin tucked, guarding nothing.

The nurse adjusts the IV and whispers,

so the silence won’t shatter.

What is the function of the word shatter in the final line?

Read the poem below and answer the question that follows.

Title: “After the Wake”

We fold the chairs like tired wings,

stack them in the parish hall.

Coffee sweats into its paper cup;

the sugar clumps, then won’t dissolve.

Your uncle laughs too loudly—once—

then stares at his hands, as if they lied.

Outside, the February wind keeps trying

all the door seams, patient as a tide.

I take your mother’s coat from the hook

and feel the weight of her absence settle

where the collar warms my wrist.

In the parking lot, the cars sit dark,

listening for a name no one will say.

In the context of the poem, what is the function of the word weight in line “and feel the weight of her absence settle”?