Question

there are 21 lines in the poem. the poem is numbered every 5 lines.
a sonnet is a rhyming poem with 14 lines. petrarch and spenser were european poets who became famous for their sonnets.
american sonnet
we do not speak like petrarch or wear a hat like spenser
and it is not fourteen lines
like furrows in a small, carefully plowed field
but the picture postcard, a poem on vacation,
that forces us to sing our songs in little rooms
or pour our sentiments into measuring cups.
we write on the back of a waterfall or lake,
adding to the view a caption as conventional
as an elizabethan woman’s heliocentric eyes.
we locate an adjective for the weather.
we announce that we are having a wonderful time.
we express the wish that you were here
and hide the wish that we were where you are,
walking back from the mailbox, your head lowered
as you read and turn the thin message in your hands.
a slice of this place, a length of white beach,
a piazza or carved spires of a cathedral
a still piece the familiar place where you remain,

in line 21, what does the phrase compression of what we feel
suggest about a postcard message?

1. the message is limited to the feelings experienced in a single moment.
2. the message is condensed in a few words that fail to reveal our true feelings.
3. the message is similar to a sonnet because both reveal shared human feelings.
4. the message is a truer description of our feelings than the picture on the other side.

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The phrase doesn't imply the message is limited to a single moment's feelings. Eliminate.
• Option 2: "Compression of what we feel" suggests the message is condensed (few words) but fails to fully reveal true feelings, matching the option's description.
• Option 3: The poem contrasts with sonnets (line 2 says "we do not speak like Petrarch..."), so the message isn't similar to a sonnet. Eliminate.
• Option 4: The phrase doesn't suggest the message is truer than the picture; the poem implies the picture/postcard is surface - level, but the message's truth - to - feelings isn't framed as truer than the picture. Eliminate.

Answer:

1. The message is condensed in a few words that fail to reveal our true feelings.