How Narrator Affects Text: Poetry Practice Test

Read the poem embedded below, then answer the question.

Title: “Visitor’s Badge”

I pin the paper name to my coat—

VISITOR in block letters, bright as a warning.

The nurse says, You can go in now,

so I go, rehearsing my face.

My father sleeps with his mouth open,

a small surrender I never taught him.

The beeping keeps time like a metronome

for a song I don’t know the words to.

I tell him about the weather, the traffic,

how the elevator mirrors make me look older.

I do not tell him I practiced saying goodbye

in the parking lot, into my steering wheel.

When his eyes flicker, I become a good child—

I smooth the sheet, I swallow the questions.

The badge swings when I lean close:

VISITOR, it says, as if I can’t stay.

How does the speaker’s perspective affect the interpretation of the poem?

Read the poem embedded below, then answer the question.

Title: “What the River Remembers”

I carried their whispers under ice,

held them like coins against my tongue.

In spring I loosened my grip

and let them spin downstream.

They built a bridge across my back,

named it after a man who never listened.

They threw wishes, bottles, and apologies

into my mouth.

At night, I rehearsed their faces

in the dark mirror of my current.

By morning, I had forgotten the details,

keeping only the weight.

Do not ask me for purity.

I am made of runoff and rain.

Still, I keep moving—

not forgiving, not accusing.

How does the speaker’s nonhuman first-person perspective (I) affect interpretation?