I am wondering what became of all those tall abstractions that used to pose, robed and statuesque, in paintings
and parade about on the pages of the Renaissance
displaying their capital letters like license plates.
Truth cantering on a powerful horse,
Chastity, eyes downcast, fluttering with veils.
Each one was marble come to life, a thought in a coat,
Courtesy bowing with one hand always extended,
Villainy sharpening an instrument behind a wall,
Reason with her crown and Constancy alert behind a helm.
They are all retired now, consigned to a Florida for tropes.
Justice is there standing by an open refrigerator.
Valor lies in bed listening to the rain.
Even Death has nothing to do but mend his cloak and hood,
and all their props are locked away in a warehouse,
hourglasses, globes, blindfolds and shackles.
Even if you called them back, there are no places left
for them to go, no Garden of Mirth or Bower of Bliss.
The Valley of Forgiveness is lined with condominiums
and chain saws are howling in the Forest of Despair.
Here on the table near the window is a vase of peonies
and next to it black binoculars and a money clip,
exactly the kind of thing we now prefer,
objects that sit quietly on a line in lower case,
themselves and nothing more, a wheelbarrow,
an empty mailbox, a razor blade resting in a glass ashtray.
As for the others, the great ideas on horseback
and the long-haired virtues in embroidered gowns,
it looks as though they have traveled down
that road you see on the final page of storybooks,
the one that winds up a green hillside and disappears
into an unseen valley where everyone must be fast asleep.

Which of the following best serves as an example of the speaker’s use of juxtaposition in the poem?

1. The function of the allusion in line 4 might best be understood to convey

A. “capital letters” (line 4) and “lower case” (line 24)

B. “thought in a coat” (line 7) and “great ideas on horseback” (line 27)

C. “Valor” (line 13) and “Death” (line 14)

D. “warehouse” (line 15) and “condominiums” (line 19)

E. “Garden of Mirth” (line 18) and “green hillside” (line 31)

2. Which of the following best explains the function of the shift in line 5 from rhetorical questions to statements?

A. The discourse changes from dialogue to monologue.

B. The speaker’s mood becomes lighter and more playful.

C. The imagery transforms from that of sleeping to waking.

D. The speaker moves from idle speculation of the past to earnest declaration of the current state of their love.

E. The point of view adjusts from first person narration of experiences to third person reporting of incidents.