Question

Which of the following phrases from the second stanza of "To One in Paradise" illustrates the shift of the poem's mood from happy to gloomy? A. "starry Hope!" B. "dream too bright" C. "That didst arise" D. "mute, motionless, aghast"

Answer 1

Answer:

D. "mute, motionless, aghast".

Explanation:

Edgar Allen Poe's poem "To One in Paradise" is about a person's loss of his love. The poem, like most of Poe's poems, deals with themes of loss, melancholy, suffering, feeling alone, depressing, despair, hopelessness, etc.

In the poem, the speaker talks of his love who had died. This made him depressed and eventually with no prospects of living at all. The first stanza addresses the dead love directly and who was his everything. He described her as "A green isle in the sea . . . A fountain and a shrine, All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers".

Then, the mood shifted when "the dream [was] too bright to last". The speaker reveals his spirit was left "Mute, motionless, aghast!" This takes him back to the reality where he is all alone, unable to move past the fact that she's no more while he remains.

Thus, the correct answer is option D.