From the following options, choose the statement that best expresses the main idea of “The Planet on the Table.” Then write the letter of the answer you choose, and briefly defend your choice. Use at least two details from the poem to support your ideas. a. The makings of the sun are the things of the natural world, while the makings of the poet are poems that reflect the imaged world. b. The poet should write about pleasant things instead of “waste and welter.” c. The makings of the sun will die and decompose, but the makings of the poet’s mind will be eternal. d. Poems should be true to the inner world of the poet’s mind.

The Planet on the Table
Ariel was glad he had written his poems.
They were of a remembered time
Or of something seen that he liked.
Other makings of the sun
Were waste and welter
And the ripe shrub writhed.
His self and the sun were one
And his poems, although makings of his self,
Were no less makings of the sun.
It was not important that they survive.
What mattered was that they should bear
Some lineament or character,
Some affluence, if only half-perceived
In the poverty of their words,
Of the planet of which they were part.

The makings of the sun are the things of the natural world, while the makings of the poet are poems that reflect the imaged world. In the poem Wallace Steven implies that the nature and poems share a deep affinity . "His self and the sun were one And his poems, although makings of his self, Were no less makings of the sun" this statement expresses that the poets reflect what the natural world shows becoming only one at this point.

Another statement form the poem that supports this option is when the poet writes "Ariel was glad he had written his poems. They were of a remembered time Or of something seen that he liked." The writer claims that his poems were about something he has seen and he has liked, something he has perceived in nature thus he has written about them.