Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer:
We crossed the salt-flats when the wind was down,
Bearing our shallow jars of oil and grain,
Leaving the dry bones of the lower town
To catch the first cold needles of the rain.
No standard marked our progress, nor did word
Escape the iron circle of our ranks;
Above us wheeled a solitary bird
Whose shadow fell like grease upon the banks.
You called it triumph, that we reached the gate
Before the torches guttered in the frost,
Yet in the silence of the watch-tower's grate,
We could not name the thing we had not lost.
A clean cold wind blew through the empty hall;
We stood like statues, waiting for the fall.
Which of the following best describes the shift in the speaker's attitude over the course of the poem?
- from a grimly objective narration of a collective journey to a somber, ironic recognition of their endeavor's futilityAnswer
- Bfrom the poet’s personal grief over leaving their ancestral home to an objective historical account of a military siege
- Ca uniform and unwavering mood of nostalgic yearning that persists from the initial departure to the final vigil at the gate
- Dan abrupt shift from a celebratory mood, established through the auditory imagery of ranks, to a fearful mood, established through the metaphor of the watch-tower
- Ea progression from despair to hope that occurs strictly at the stanza breaks, ignoring the syntax that flows across the line endings within the stanzas