Question

read the poem. there are several questions about this poem.
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 womans 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
will pierce the familiar place where you remain,
and you will toss on the table this reversible display:
a few square inches of where we have strayed
how do lines 10 - 12 mainly contribute to the meaning of the poem?

1. the lines show the reader that messages on a postcard are

customary and unoriginal.

1. the lines reveal the contrast a typical recipient sees between

the two sides of a postcard.

1. the lines hint at the feelings of the recipient who will later

read and discard the postcard.

1. the lines help the reader appreciate the superiority of a

postcard to an old - fashioned poem.

Explanation:

Lines 10 - 12 describe the common, unoriginal phrases used on postcards (finding an adjective for the weather, announcing a wonderful time, expressing the wish that you were here). These are typical, over - used messages, showing that postcard messages are not unique.

Answer:

1. The lines show the reader that messages on a postcard are customary and unoriginal.