Question

identifying and analyzing parallelism

nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
a lonely impulse of delight
drove to this tumult in the clouds
-\an irish airman foresees his death,\
w. b. yeats

what grammatical structure is repeated in this passage?
the use of
or\ plus a noun
the use of lines that begin with action verbs
the use of \this\ to introduce important words

Explanation:

Identify the grammatical structure in the passage

Using the Parallelism Analysis knowledge point, we examine the first two lines of W. B. Yeats's poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death":
"Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,"

We look for repeating grammatical patterns across these lines.

Analyze the repeating elements

We observe the repetition of the conjunction "nor" followed immediately by a noun or noun phrase:

• "Nor law" ("nor" + noun)
• "nor duty" ("nor" + noun)
• "Nor public man" ("nor" + noun phrase)
• "nor cheering crowds" ("nor" + noun phrase)

This consistent repetition of "nor" followed by a noun structure establishes grammatical parallelism.

Evaluate the given options

• the use of "nor" plus a noun: This directly matches our analysis of the parallel structures ("nor law", "nor duty", "nor public man", "nor cheering crowds").
• the use of lines that begin with action verbs: The lines begin with "Nor", which is a conjunction, not an action verb.
• the use of "this" to introduce important words: "this" is only used once in the fourth line ("this tumult") and is not a repeated grammatical structure.

Answer:

• the use of "nor" plus a noun (Correct answer)
• the use of lines that begin with action verbs
• the use of "this" to introduce important words