Question

Read the excerpt from “Birches” by Robert Frost.

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the line of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

What is the best description of the theme of this excerpt?
The sun is more powerful than ice and snow.
Birches are destroyed by both people and nature.
The sun has a wondrous effect on icy birch branches.
Ice storms are nature’s most powerful force.

Answer 1

Answer: The sun has a wondrous effect on icy birch branches.

Explanation:

Robert Frost in this excerpt speaks of how birches are affected by ice and then by the environment around them from how the birches are bent by ice to how the icy branches are then affected by the wind, rain and sun.

At the end Robert describes the effect the sun has on the branches and notes how the sun enables the birches to shed to snow in such heaps that one might think a part of heaven has fallen. As heaven is considered so beautiful, it must mean that the effect the sun had was a beautiful and wonderful one.

Answer 2

Answer:

C - The sun has a wondrous effect on icy birch branches.

Explanation:

Edge.