“The Last Quarter of the Moon” by Amy Lowell
How long shall I tarnish the mirror of life,
A spatter of rust on its polished steel!
The seasons reel
Like a goaded wheel.
Half-numb, half-maddened, my days are strife.
The night is sliding towards the dawn,
And upturned hills crouch at autumn's knees.
A torn moon flees
Through the hemlock trees,
The hours have gnawed it to feed their spawn.
Pursuing and jeering the misshapen thing
A rabble of clouds flares out of the east.
Like dogs unleashed
After a beast,
They stream on the sky, an outflung string.
A desolate wind, through the unpeopled dark,
Shakes the bushes and whistles through empty nests,
And the fierce unrests
I keep as guests
Crowd my brain with corpses, pallid and stark.
Leave me in peace, O Spectres, who haunt
My labouring mind, I have fought and failed.
I have not quailed,
I was all unmailed
And naked I strove, 'tis my only vaunt.
The moon drops into the silver day
As waking out of her swoon she comes.
I hear the drums
Of millenniums
Beating the mornings I still must stay.
The years I must watch go in and out,
While I build with water, and dig in air,
And the trumpets blare
Hollow despair,
The shuddering trumpets of utter rout.
An atom tossed in a chaos made
Of yeasting worlds, which bubble and foam.
Whence have I come?
What would be home?
I hear no answer. I am afraid!
I crave to be lost like a wind-blown flame.
Pushed into nothingness by a breath,
And quench in a wreath
Of engulfing death
This fight for a God, or this devil's game.
Use the poem to answer the question.
Based on the speaker’s perspective in Stanza 6, which epiphany does she come to?
A.
A new day always dawns.
B.
She has awakened from her dream of existence.
C.
Hope can be found in the morning.
D.
She will experience relief from her anguish.
E.
Life’s strife is unceasing.
C. Hope can be found in the morning.
The correct answer is B. She has awakened from her dream of existence. In Stanza 6, the speaker describes the moon dropping into the silver day and waking out of her swoon. This suggests that the speaker has come to the realization that she has been living in a dream or illusion, and now she is awake or becoming aware of the reality of her existence.
To answer this question, we need to analyze the speaker's perspective in Stanza 6 of the poem. The specific line in question is "The moon drops into the silver day, As waking out of her swoon she comes, I hear the drums, Of millenniums, Beating the mornings I still must stay."
From this stanza, we can infer that the speaker is experiencing a moment of realization or epiphany. The line "The moon drops into the silver day" suggests the transition from night to day, symbolizing the beginning of a new day. The speaker mentions hearing the "drums of millenniums," which implies the passage of time and the continuation of life.
Therefore, based on the speaker's perspective in Stanza 6, the epiphany she comes to is that a new day always dawns. Option A, "A new day always dawns," is the correct answer.