Question

Read the passage from "Rainy Day."

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

Identify the meter. Then identify the effect of that meter.

Question options:

A.unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED. It is reminiscent of slow, ponderous raindrops.


B.unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED. It emphasizes the dreariness of life.


C.STRESSED unstressed, STRESSED unstressed, STRESSED unstressed, STRESSED unstressed. It allows you to visualize the speaker.


D.unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED. It gives the poem a reflective mood.

Answer 1

The correct answer is B) unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED, unstressed STRESSED. It emphasizes the dreariness of life.

This rhyme scheme is aabba which means that the word "dreary" from the beginning of the stanza rhymes back with itself in the end of the stanza which emphasizes the cyclical, dreary nature of life though the means of using this meter. In other words, the dreariness cannot be escaped.