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Question

Difficulty: HardTone and Mood Analysis

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer.

1 Here where the boxwood tangles with the brier,
2 The lichened dial counts the shadowed hours,
3 A cold surveyor of the dying fire
4 That once was summer's canopy of flowers.
5 It measures out the slow, declining day,
6 As though the sun were but a slave to rules,
7 And marks the silent creeping of decay
8 With all the rigid certainty of schools.
9 Yet we who linger in the evening frost
10 Rage at the dial's clean, unblinking eye,
11 Mourning the transient passions we have lost
12 While this stone mockery persists to lie.

Which of the following best describes the shift in the speaker's tone that occurs in line 9?

  1. A
    A shift from the poet's personal autobiographical grief to a generalized, philosophical acceptance
  2. B
    A continuation of a static, nostalgic melancholy that remains unbroken throughout the poem
  3. A transition from detached, clinical observation to passionate, bitter resentmentAnswer
  4. D
    A movement from a literal cataloging of the garden's features to a chronological summary of decay
  5. E
    A change from identifying formal literary devices to evaluating the mechanical structure of the lines

Answer

A transition from detached, clinical observation to passionate, bitter resentment
The correct answer is correct because the first two stanzas of the poem employ terms of clinical detachment ('cold surveyor,' 'slave to rules,' 'rigid certainty') to describe the sundial's objective measurement of time. The third stanza, marked by the volta 'Yet,' introduces a passionate human perspective of anger ('Rage') and sorrow ('Mourning') directed at the stone's permanence. Therefore, the tone shifts from detached, clinical observation to passionate, bitter resentment.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the speaker's attitude in the first eight lines of the poem.
The speaker describes the sundial measuring time with clinical, objective language, referring to it as a 'cold surveyor' that marks decay with 'rigid certainty' and views the sun as 'a slave to rules.' This establishes a detached, resigned tone.
Understanding the initial tone is necessary to trace how it changes later in the poem.
2
Identify the pivot word and analyze the shift in tone starting in line 9.
The volta occurs in line 9 with the word 'Yet,' where the speaker shifts from describing the dial to describing human reaction: we 'Rage at the dial' and 'Mourning the transient passions.' This introduces an emotional, bitter, and resentful tone.
The shift in focus from the object to the human observer signals the tonal change.
3
Synthesize the two parts to determine the overall tonal shift.
The speaker moves from a detached, objective observation of the passing of time to an active, passionate, and bitter resentment of the dial's permanence in the face of human transience.
Combining the initial detached tone and the subsequent passionate resentment yields the correct overall description of the shift.

Key Concept

Tonal shifts in poetry
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

Tone and Mood Analysis

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