the sonnet-ballad Quiz

Which of these is most likely the reason the speaker says that death has “possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)” in line 11?

• Most people would not consider death beautiful.

• Most people would not understand that the speaker is talking about death.

• Few people can see the beauty in possessive arms.

• Many people think of death as having arms and legs.

Which of these is most closely a major theme of the poem?

• Comedy

• Grief

• Beauty

• Fidelity

With which of these statements would the poet most likely agree?

• Happiness is a natural part of the grieving process.

• The people who are most affected by war are the politicians.

• Epic poems that glorify war are largely accurate.

• The impacts of war last long after the actual war has ended.

Which passage from the poem best supports the correct answer to Question 3?

• “Oh mother, mother, where is happiness? / They took my lover's tallness off to war, / Left me lamenting.”

• “Now I cannot guess / What I can use an empty heart-cup for.”

• “Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew / When he went walking grandly out that door / That my sweet love would have to be untrue.”

• “And he will be the one to stammer, ‘Yes.’ / Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?”

Impudent

• in a grand or impressive manner

• to pause with uncertainty before doing something

• bold and disrespectful

• to express intense grief or sorrow

Lament

• bold and disrespectful

• to express intense grief or sorrow

• flirtatious and teasing

• to pause with uncertainty before doing something

Coquettish

• in a grand or impressive manner

• to express intense grief or sorrow

• to pause with uncertainty before doing something

• flirtatious and teasing

Hesitate

• to pause with uncertainty before doing something

• bold and disrespectful

• flirtatious and teasing

• in a grand or impressive manner

 Grandly

• to pause with uncertainty before doing something

• in a grand or impressive manner

• to express intense grief or sorrow

• bold and disrespectful

Reread lines 9-14 of the poem. Then answer the multiple-choice question that follows.

9 Would have to be untrue. Would have to court

10   Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange

11    Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)

12   Can make a hard man hesitate—and change.

13   And he will be the one to stammer, “Yes.”

14   Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?

How does the repetition of the phrase would have to affect the meaning of the poem?

• It emphasizes the idea that the speaker’s lover could not deny death.

• It shows that men must always go to battle to defend their country.

• It communicates that losing her lover to the war was not the speaker’s choice.

• It highlights just how much the speaker admires her lover for fulfilling his duty as a soldier.