Instructions
Reread lines 5–8 of the poem. Then answer the multiple-choice questions that follow.

From “Love Is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
5 Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
6 Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
7 Yet many a man is making friends with death
8 Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.

Which of the following correctly identifies the meter in this quatrain?
Answer choices for the above question

A. The poet uses a regular meter of iambic pentameter throughout, alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.

B. The poet uses an irregular meter throughout because there is no consistent pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables.

C. The poet uses an irregular meter in lines 5–6 and a regular meter of iambic pentameter in lines 7–8.

D. The poet uses a regular meter of iambic pentameter in lines 5–6 and an irregular meter in lines 7–8.

What is the effect of the meter in this quatrain?

A. It creates a steady, rhythmic quality, which emphasizes the traditional format of the sonnet.

B. It mimics the image of a lung breathing air in and out, as described in line 5.

C. It signals a shift in meaning between lines 5–6 and lines 7–8.

D. It emphasizes the words fill and lung and takes emphasis away from the words lack and love.

In this quatrain, the poet uses end rhyme. What is the effect of the poet’s use of end rhyme in lines 5 and 7?

A. Rhyming breath with death creates a contrast that emphasizes the poet’s conflicting messages in these two lines.

B. Rhyming breath with death emphasizes the central message of this quatrain that love has no value to humans.

C. Rhyming can with man allows the poet to highlight the fact that people can make love work as long as they put effort into their relationships.

D. There is no end rhyme in these two lines. These two lines include a slant rhyme because breath and death do not rhyme exactly.