Question

El General has found his word: perejil.

Who says it, lives. He laughs, teeth shining
out of the swamp. The cane appears

in our dreams, lashed by wind and streaming.
And we lie down. For every drop of blood
there is a parrot imitating spring.
Out of the swamp the cane appears. . . .

It is fall, when thoughts turn
to love and death; the general thinks
of his mother, how she died in the fall
and he planted her walking cane at the grave
and it flowered, each spring stolidly forming
four-star blossoms.

–“Parsley,”
Rita Dove

Which meanings of the word cane are used in these lines from the poem? Choose two correct answers.

a stick that aids in walking
a stalk of sugarcane
the wood pickets that make up a fence
to run away from trouble
to hit someone repeatedly with a stick

Answer 1

a stick that aids in walking: This meaning is implied by the mention of the general planting his mother's walking cane at the grave, which later flowers.
a stalk of sugarcane: This meaning is implied by the mention of the cane appearing out of the swamp, which refers to the sugarcane plant.
The other options mentioned in the poem, such as the wood pickets of a fence, running away from trouble, or hitting someone repeatedly with a stick, are not directly relevant to the context of the poe