How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness every where!
1. William Shakespeare, "How like a winter hath my absence been," in Shakespeare's
Sonnets, ed. William J. Rolfe (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1883), 95.
Which of the following is the most likely explanation for how the structure of
the poem contributes to its meaning?
A. The repetition of exclamation marks is part of the poem's lyric
structure and conveys that each comparison is highly emotional
for the speaker.
O
B. The image of "freezings" conveys that this is an excerpt from an
epic poem and suggests that the speaker's true love is cold and
doesn't return his affection.
O
C. The sequence of ideas from "Winter" to "fleeting year" uses an epic
structure to tell a complex story about the speaker's relationship.
O
D. The lack of rhyme between "year" and "where" shows that this
poem is a lyric work in which the speaker feels too angry to write
correctly.