Literature 1

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

Of the following, the word that BEST describes the tone of the poem’s title is

• ironic

• solemn

• romantic

• didactic

• indifferent

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

The third stanza contains

• simile

• synecdote

• exclamatory statement

• litotes

• onomatopoeia

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

The poem is composed in

• ballad form

• free verse

• sonnet form

• blank verse

• cinquain

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

A pun which emphasizes the two extended metaphors in the poem is contained in the word

• mould

• meteor

• bubble

• trap

• flower

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

The speaker relates corruption MOST closely to

• flat areas

• population density

• meteors

• volcanoes

• metal

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

The predominant imagery in the passage is

• auditory

• gustatory

• tactile

• visual

• olfactory

Shine, Perishing Republic

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily, thickening to empire,

And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.

Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay; not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor; meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption

Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.

There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he walked on earth.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

The speaker would prefer that his children be

• materialistic

• philosophies

• uncompassionate

• critics

• ethical

Which of the following was NOT a member of the English Romantic movement?

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• William Blake

• Rudyard Kipling

• John Keats

• Percy Bysshe Shelley

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behavior uses which of the following as a literary device?

• supersonic jets

• drones

• bald eagles

• hummingbirds

• monarch butterflies

What is the title of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1972 novel about nature?

• The Word for World is Forest

• Pacific Edge

• The Fifth Sacred Thing

• Ecotopia

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built