In Selection 2, why is the phrase “ here for now” repeated at the end of every stanza?
A)to show that progress is important
B)to express that everything is impermanent
C)to express that the tour bus is standing still
D)to show that wilderness always triumphs over civilization
(the poem)
I gaze out the tour bus window at an ancient land.
The green fields could tell tales of centuries past.
Snaking rivers have chased their own tails and shed their blue skins
But are here for now.
5 I see a grove of trees sway slightly in the soft wind ahead.
Branches mime silent secrets beyond the window.
Shades of leaves have bloomed and faded and fallen again
But are here for now.
I look at a town of rubble beyond the passing trees.
10 Broken bricks and shattered shingles lie in a crisp grid of ruin.
This ancient village has prospered and faded, now felled by the axe of progress,
But is here for now.
It looks as if trees were planted to obscure the past. These walls of leaves hide houses in pieces.
15 Someone wants to forget this short breath of history that has come and drifted onward
But is here for now.
Ahead a city gleams, a new horizon on ancient land.
Miles of glass and steel that speak at night with endless light.
A great future has arrived—an immovable age!
20 A permanent page in humanity’s tome of tales!—
But it is really only here for now.