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Read the poem "The Secret" by Emily Dickinson.

Some things that fly there be,—
Birds, hours, the bumble-bee:
Of these no elegy.

Some things that stay there be,—
Grief, hills, eternity:
Nor this behooveth me.

There are, that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies!

What meaning does the end rhyme in the final stanza help convey?

contradiction
dishonesty
excitement
inactivity

User Laurenelizabeth
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1 Answer

28 votes
28 votes

Final answer:

The end rhyme in Emily Dickinson's poem 'The Secret' conveys a sense of inactivity by highlighting the unresolved riddle of understanding the natural world, despite contemplation and attempt to expound it.

Step-by-step explanation:

The end rhyme in the final stanza of Emily Dickinson's poem The Secret helps to convey a sense of inactivity. The poem's end words 'rise,' 'skies,' and 'lies' connect the act of trying to understand or 'expound' the natural world with an ultimate stillness or failure to grasp it entirely. This sense of inactivity is reinforced by the poem's structure and internal rhymes, which create a tension and build up that result in a sense of quietude and lack of resolution. The end rhyme emphasizes the riddle of the skies that remains unsolved and lying 'still,' thus projecting a contemplative inactivity in the face of such a vast and perplexing universe.

User Delmo
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