Question

Read the stanzas. From “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” “Ah, are you digging on my grave My loved one?—planting rue?” —“No: yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. ‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said, ‘That I should not be true.’” “Then who is digging on my grave? My nearest dearest kin?” —“Ah, no: they sit and think, ‘What use! What good will planting flowers produce? No tendance of her mound can loose Her spirit from Death’s gin.’” “But some one digs upon my grave? My enemy?—prodding sly?” —“Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate That shuts on all flesh soon or late, She thought you no more worth her hate, And cares not where you lie.” What pattern develops in these first three stanzas of “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave”? One stanza begs for an object and the next stanza describes it. Each stanza begins with a question and ends with an answer and explanation. One stanza makes an appeal and the next stanza rejects it. Each stanza opens with a description and ends with a simile or metaphor.

Answer 1

I believe the answer is B. Each stanza begins with a question and ends with an answer and explanation.

Explanation:

"Ah, are you digging on my grave My loved one?" is a question and the next line "No: yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. ‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said, ‘That I should not be true.’”" is the answer and explanation

Answer 2

Each stanza begins with a question and ends with an answer and explanation.

Step-by-step explanation:

The speaker of this poem is a woman who is dead and buried, and feels that someone is digging on her grave. At the beginning of the stanza, the woman asks who the person digging is (her former lover? her relative? her enemy?) and towards the end of the stanza, an answer is offered, along with an explanation. We learn that the lover married another woman, and no longer thinks of her. The family believe tending the grave to be pointless, and therefore, have forsaken it. Finally, the enemy believes that now that death has arrived, hate is pointless, and has stopped caring about her. Therefore, none of these characters are the ones digging on her grave.