Question

as you read, take notes on how dickinson uses figurative language to describe death. 1 because i could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves and immortality. 5 we slowly drove, he knew no haste, and i had put away my labor, and my leisure too, for his civility. we passed the school where children played, 10 their lessons scarcely done; we passed the fields of gazing grain, we passed the setting sun. we paused before a house that seemed a swelling of the ground; 15 the roof was scarcely visible, the cornice but a mound. untitled by christian_birkholz is licensed under cc0. assessment questions 5. which statement best describes how the setting in stanza 4 impacts the meaning of the poem? a. the speaker does not want to pause at the house, suggesting the setting frightens her and she is eager to move on. b. the speaker describes her grave as a house, suggesting she needs shelter from death, contributing to her desperate and scared tone. c. the speakers final house or tomb has collapsed into the earth, contributing to the poems theme that human lives are unimportant to nature. d. the speaker describes her tomb as a house, showing she views her bodys final resting place as one of comfort rather than fear.

Explanation:

In stanza 4, the speaker pauses before a "house" which is her tomb, described as a swelling of the ground with a scarcely - visible roof. This description shows that the speaker views her final resting place as a place of comfort rather than fear. The other options misinterpret the tone and meaning of the description. Option A is incorrect as there's no indication of fear of the "house" making the speaker want to move on. Option B is wrong because there's no desperate and scared tone; rather a calm acceptance. Option C is not supported as there's no mention of the tomb collapsing or the insignificance of human lives to nature.

Answer:

D. The speaker describes her tomb as a "house," showing she views her body's final resting place as one of comfort rather than fear.