In the following stanza from “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—,” which words form a slant rhyme? The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— / And Breaths were gathering firm / For that last Onset—when the King / Be witnessed—in the Room —
A. dry and firm
B. King and Room
C. dry and King
D. firm and Room
The answer is D because a slant rhyme is a "rhyme in which either the vowels or the consonants of stressed syllables are identical". Firm and Room have the final 'M' sound in common.
To determine which words form a slant rhyme in the given stanza from the poem "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—" by Emily Dickinson, it is important to understand what a slant rhyme is. A slant rhyme, also known as an imperfect rhyme or a near rhyme, occurs when the ending sounds of two words are similar but not identical.
Looking closely at the stanza, we can examine the end sounds of each line:
The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset—when the King
Be witnessed—in the Room —
From this analysis, we can see that there are two pairs of words that have similar but not identical ending sounds: "dry" and "firm" (A) and "King" and "Room" (B).
Therefore, the correct answer is:
A. dry and firm
B. King and Room