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PREPARING FOR THE AP EXAM
Multiple-Choice Questions: Poetry

A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
A noiseless patient spider,
1
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
2
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
5 Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
3
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
4
10 Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
1. Alliteration in line 3 (“Mark’d . . . surrounding,”) 2. Use of the word “somewhere” (line 10)
emphasizes suggest that the speaker is
(A) the journey facing the spider. (A) talking as much to himself as he is his
(B) the enormity of the isolation perceived by soul.
the spider. (B) unable to accept responsibility for the
(C) how much the spider has explored in his actions of his own soul.
time. (C) frightened of the growing distance
(D) how lost the spider feels in his between himself and his soul.
unexplored surroundings. (D) uncertain about his own direction and
(E) the dangers the spider perceives from his existence.
high vantage point. (E) willing to follow wherever his soul
may wander.

1 A point of high land that juts out into a large body of water.
2 In this case, a thread of spider’s web; some spiders begin building webs by releasing filaments into
the air until they stick to something nearby.
3 Heavenly bodies such as planets, sun, moon, and stars.
4 A fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs spun by small spiders.

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Question Answer AP Skill AP Essential Knowledge
5.B Explain the function of specific words FIG-1.D Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter sound at the beginning of
1 B and phrases in a text. adjacent or nearby words to emphasize those words and their associations or
representations.
1.A Identify and describe what specific CHR-1.P Characters’ choices—in speech, action, and inaction—reveal what
textual details reveal about a character, they value.
2 D
that character’s perspective, and that
character’s motives.

206 Unit 2 Analyzing Comparisons and Representations

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