Read the excerpt from stanzas 3 and 4 of "The Turtle.” It isn’t even hers but came to her
in the rain or the soft wind,
which is a gate through which her life keeps walking.

She can’t see
herself apart from the rest of the world
or the world from what she must do
every spring.
Crawling up the high hill,
luminous under the sand that has packed against her skin,
she doesn’t dream

Read the lines from "The Turtle.”

of her patience, her fortitude,
her determination to complete
what she was born to do –
and then you realize a greater thing –
she doesn’t consider
what she was born to do.

What does the poet’s word choice in these lines say about her attitude toward the turtle?

She questions the turtle’s intelligence.
She likes the turtle’s slow movements.
She thinks the turtle’s task is an easy one.
She admires the turtle’s natural drive.