Question

Which two characteristics of this excerpt from James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" help to classify it as a lyric poem? Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. The poem contains imagery that communicates the speakers' emotions. The poem is written in Sapphic stanzas with lines of alternating meter. The poem captures the mood of a specific historical event. The poem has a simple rhyme and doesn’t narrate a sequence of events. The poem is entirely about past events narrated from an eyewitness's point of view.

Answer 1

The two characteristics of this excerpt from James Weldon Jonhson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" that help classifying it as a lyric poem are: "The poem contains imagery that communicates the speakers' emotions" and "The poem has simple rhyme and doesn't narrate a sequence of events".

When a poem contains imagery that communicates the speakers' emotions, it can be classified as a lyric poem, because lyric poems are always written from a first-person perspective and express their personal feelings and thoughts. In this passage "Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered", this characteristic can be observed, since the poet uses the pronoun "we" to express his emotions through images like "weary feet" and "a way that with tears has been watered".

Also, the poem is written in simple rhymes, with a simple rhyme scheme, which is a lyric poem's characteristic, since most of them are short and melodic and could be even accompanied by music in the past. Moreover, the poem doesn't narrate a sequence of events, therefore, it can't be considered a narrative poem. What is being told in it are the speaker's emotions and perceives during a moment or event, there is no time or space setting, although there are subjective signs pointing to space-time references. "Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast", the speaker says, not specifying when would be "now" and calling his past "gloomy", which can confirm that the poem doesn't narrate a sequence of events.

The correct answer couldn't be "The poem is written in Sapphic stanzas with lines of alternating meter" because the poem isn't written in Sapphic stanzas, which is an Aeolic verse form in four lines. An example of Aeolic verse can be seen in the poem Sappho 31: "That man seems to me to be equal to the gods Who is sitting opposite you And hears you nearby Speaking sweetly". So, the poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" isn't written in Sapphic stanzas.

The correct answer couldn't be "The poem captures the mood of a specific historical event" because nor it can be understood from the poem any specific historical event, nor this can be considered as a lyric poem characteristic. Usually, lyric poems express the speaker's subjective feelings and thoughts. Hence, this couldn't be the correct alternative.

The correct answer couldn't be "The poem is entirely about the past events narrated from an eyewitness's point of view" because, in a lyric poem, the speaker talks from a first-person point of view and tells about personal thoughts and feelings. So, the speaker in the poem couldn't be just an eyewitness, telling about something that didn't happen to them. Also, the poem is not entirely about past events. The speaker also talks about some present, "Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast", a "now" that influences on the speaker's subjective expressed. Thus, the poem can't be understood as entirely about past events neither as narrated from an eyewitness's point of view.

Answer 2

Answer: its A and D for PLATO

Explanation:

A. The poem contains imagery that communicates the speakers' emotions.

D. The poem has a simple rhyme and doesn’t narrate a sequence of events.