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AP English Literature and Composition 1.2 Passage Drill 4
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AP English Literature and Composition 1.2 Passage Drill 4. As which of the following is the object being personified?

AP English Literature and Composition 1.4 Passage Drill 3
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AP English Literature and Composition 1.4 Passage Drill 3. How is Burne's view of pacifism best characterized in lines 57 through 67?

AP English Literature and Composition 1.6 Passage Drill 5
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AP English Literature and Composition 1.6 Passage Drill 5. Death is primarily characterized as what?

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AP English Literature and Composition 1.8 Passage Drill 4 221 Views


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AP English Literature and Composition 1.8 Passage Drill 4. What shift is indicated in line 15?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Mortality. Because living forever sounds

00:08

like such a drag.

00:18

What shift is indicated in line 15?

00:22

And here are the potential answers...

00:28

In poetry, a shift is something like a key change in music.

00:33

The poem goes from doing one thing... to doing another.

00:35

UNLIKE in music, it's rarely because the writer is having trouble... hitting the high notes...

00:41

So let's take a look at line 15 and see what we can see.

00:44

Although... we want to see what SHIFT takes place, so we should also look at the few lines

00:48

that precede it:

00:49

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play

00:55

on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

00:59

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

01:05

Line 15 is the last one... the one that starts with "fair youth."

01:09

So... what changes? Is he suddenly addressing the urn?

01:13

Nah... he's been talking to the urn the entire time. Apparently, his silverware already had

01:17

plans. Is he now addressing his own former youth?

01:21

Nope. He's not talking to himself... although, that would probably be an improvement, from

01:25

a social standpoint...

01:26

...instead, he's talking to this "fair youth beneath the trees"... whom he has spotted

01:31

on the side of the urn. Let's keep going...

01:34

Well, because we just established that he isn't addressing himself, we can rule out

01:38

option C, too...

01:39

...and D can't be it, because he's no longer talking to the urn in general -- he's talking

01:43

to a SPECIFIC image on the urn...

01:46

...which is option E.

01:48

Remind us not to attend any of this guy's dinner parties...

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