Term test Review

11-in line 4, to what is the author referring in the phrase, “The weakening eye of day”?

• If the day had an eyeball, what would it be? Did you guess “the sun”? You’re smart. Which part of the day would the “eye” start getting weak? Toward the end of the day, right? Smart smart.
• Correct: C—sunset
• Incorrect: the rest. Because duh.

12- How does the time in which the poem was composed affect the speaker’s perception of the world?

• What is the time in which the poem was composed. Gosh, if only there were some way to know.
• Oh yeah! They told us in the preface material that it’s the last day of the 19th century. Hey which answer choice actually mentioned that?
• Correct: D– the only answer that mentions the end of the century
• Incorrect: duuuuuuh

13- how has the speaker changed between the first and last stanzas of the poem?

• Remember, first he was bummed, and then he was hopeful? There are only two answer choices like that, A and B. C says he felt more depressed, and D said he felt confused. Both out.
• A: “He feels less alone knowing the thrust is nearby this time of night.”
• Or
• B: “He feels encouraged by the emotion exhibited in the thrush’s song.”
• Well. Is it night? No? So the answer is B.

14- how does the metaphor comparing the land to the century’s corpse reinforce the meaning of the poem?

• So, corpses are usually a negative symbol, right. So we need an answer choice with a negative connotation. That’s either letter C or D.
• C– “It shows the speaker is on the verge of death”
• …since when is the guy in the poem dying? The only corpse belongs to the century, it says it in the poem and right in the question.
• D– “It suggests the speaker is mourning the century’s end.”
• That sounds better. “Mourning” means being sad over the death of something. The speaker is sad over the “death” of the century. A century can’t literally die, which makes calling the end of the century a corpse a metaphor.