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8 questions
In lines 12-13, sentence fragments and a stanza break are used to
provide an ironic counterpoint to those lines' discussion of the speaker's faults
reinforce those lines' description of the beloved's relationship to space and time
mirror the glasses and vases broken by the beloved in the first stanza
The second and fourth stanza are similar in that they both
present feelings toward the beloved that the speaker rejects at the end of the poem
reinforce the notion that the speaker's beloved cannot cope with the modern world
describe qualities of the speaker's beloved that compensate for shortcomings discussed in other stanzas
The hyperbole in the closing sentence (lines 23-24) best conveys the speaker's
affection toward the beloved's cluminess
criticism of the beloved's many shortcomings
distress at imagining the beloved's death
In the poem, subtle allusions to idiomatic expressions, such as "bulls in china" (line 3) and "A wrench in clocks" (line 13) mainly serve to
highlight the severity of the beloved's shortcomings
disclose a secret between the speaker and his beloved
echo language typically found in classical poetry
Throughout the poem, the imagery emphasizes a contrast between the beloved's
worldly ambitions and private anxieties
fickle personality and basic good-heartedness
physical awkwardness and emotional dexterity
The poem as a whole can best be understood as the speaker encouraging his beloved to
reconsider her rejection of him
join him in a new endeavor
continue being herself
The personification in the fifth stanza (lines 17-20) voices the speaker's attitude to his "dear" as
genuine alarm
amused adoration
elaborate condenscension
In the context, the speaker's use of the word "traffic" (line 15) evokes both the street scenes described in lines 9-12 and the beloved's
skilled exchanges of ideas in conversation
slowness to understand the meaning of a joke
willingness to travel to be with people she loves
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