Lxv [once, i knew a fine song] by stephen crane

once, i knew a fine song,
—it is true, believe me,—
it was all of birds,
and i held them in a basket;
when i opened the wicket, 5
heavens! they all flew away.
i cried, “come back, little thoughts! ”
but they only laughed.
they flew on
until they were as sand 10
thrown between me and the sky.

1. the shift in syntax in lines 9-11 is likely designed to
a) provide a parallel structure to the lines 1-3
b) mimic the fleeting nature of thoughts with informal open form poetry
c) imitate the rhyme scheme found in a sonnet
d) illustrate the growing distance of the birds with lines that grow in length
e) show the speaker's loss through lack of meter

2. what types of rhymes does the poet use in this poem?
a) couplets
b) end rhymes
c) half rhymes
d) identical rhymes
e) internal rhymes

3. which of the following sound devices is most evident in line 2?
a) alliteration
b) assonance
c) cacophony
d) consonance
e) onomatopoeia

Read the excerpt from the land. in the late afternoon i did the same, but all the time i was on the stallion, i was aware that mitchell was watching me. he had appeared on the edge of the woods and had just stood there watching ghost wind and me as we went round and round the meadow. finally, on one of our turns past him, he said: "s'pose you thinkin' you a real somebody 'cause you can ride that stallion." i looked down at mitchell and stopped, knowing that despite our understanding, he was itching for a fight with me. now, i don't know what possessed me in that moment to say the next thing i did. maybe i was feeling guilty that because i was my daddy's son, i could ride ghost wind. maybe it was that, but it wasn't out of fear i said what i said. i no longer was afraid of mitchell. "you want to ride him? " i asked. mitchell took a step backward. it was obvious he hadn't expected me to say that. "you know i can't ride him," he said. "your white daddy'd kill me." "you want to ride him? " i asked again. mitchell looked at the stallion, then at me. "so, what if i do? " what intrinsic motivation does the author most likely intend the reader to infer from the passage? paul is motivated by his need to have mitchell praise his riding skills. mitchell is motivated by his need to have paul praise his riding skills. paul is motivated by jealousy and wishes he had free time like mitchell. mitchell is motivated by jealousy and wishes he could ride the horse.