Read the following poem:
Within these panes of glass, a false July
Preserves the orchid’s tongue, the fern’s green feather,
Beneath a high, manufactured sky
That locks out winter’s blade and biting weather.
Here, safe from frost, the heavy blossoms sigh,
Shedding their pollen in a stagnant room,
Content to bloom and scent the air, while I
Admire the neat defiance of their bloom.
Yet pressing close against the steamed-up glass,
The skeletal grey branches of the oak
Mock this small refuge where the hours pass
In sweet simulation, like a gilded yoke;
For outside, in the cold, the wild things die,
But dying, feed the earth that gives them birth,
While here, embalmed in heat, the lilies lie,
Denied the soil, the struggle, and the earth.
In the poem, the speaker’s attitude toward the conservatory undergoes a shift that is best described as a transition from which of the following?
- Aliteral categorization of the flora to a figurative comparison using personification
- Bconsistent admiration of its ability to defy the destructive forces of winter
- Cpersonal pride in the poet’s own ability to write poetry that preserves life to a sense of guilt over neglecting the outside world
- appreciation of its protective warmth to a realization of its sterile confinementAnswer
- Eobserving the physical structure of the glass panes to describing the outdoor winter weather