Read the following poem:
1 Beneath the vault of quiet night,
2 Where stars their silent vigil keep,
3 A traveler seeks the fading light
4 Of dreams that vanish in his sleep.
5 To minds by heavy care oppressed,
6 No gentle balm does nature yield;
7 The troubled soul finds little rest
8 In empty wood or barren field.
9 Yet onward through the dark he goes,
10 Though paths are dim and hope is cold,
11 Until the eastern horizon glows
12 With morning's first, triumphant gold.
In lines 5–6 ('To minds . . . yield'), the syntactical inversion of the sentence structure functions primarily to do which of the following?
- Acontrast the indifference of the night with the active hostility of nature
- Bestablish a parallel structure that equates human care with natural remedies
- emphasize the state of human suffering before introducing the source of potential reliefAnswer
- Dsuggest that nature actively seeks to oppress minds that are already troubled
- Eisolate the traveler's experience from the physical world he traverses
Answer
The correct answer is that the inverted syntax emphasizes the state of human suffering before introducing the source of potential relief.
The correct option is correct because the inverted sentence structure (anastrophe) delays the subject ('nature') and verb ('does yield') to the end of the clause. This highlights the prepositional phrase ('To minds by heavy care oppressed') and the negative direct object ('No gentle balm'), focusing the reader's attention immediately on the human state of suffering and the absence of relief before identifying the source that fails to provide it.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Poetic Diction and Syntax