Sample CST Question 10

Water Picture
by May Swenson

In the pond in the park

all things are doubled:

Long buildings hang and

wriggle gently. Chimneys

   5     are bent legs bouncing

on clouds below. A flag

wags like a fishhook

down there in the sky.

The arched stone bridge

10      is an eye, with underlid

in the water. In its lens

dip crinkled heads with hats

that don’t fall off. Dogs go by,

barking on their backs.

15      A baby, taken to feed the

ducks, dangles upside-down,

a pink balloon for a buoy.

Treetops deploy a haze of

cherry bloom for roots,

20      where birds coast belly-up

in the glass bowl of a hill;

from its bottom a bunch

of peanut-munching children

is suspended by their

25      sneakers, waveringly.

A swan, with twin necks

forming the figure 3,

steers between two dimpled

towers doubled. Fondly

30      hissing, she kisses herself,

and all the scene is troubled:

water-windows splinter,

tree-limbs tangle, the bridge

folds like a fan.

“Water Picture” from NATURE: POEMS OLD AND NEW. Copyright © 1994 by the Literary Estate of May Swenson. Reprinted
by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CSR1P245

How does the poet achieve her tone?

A   She sets the poem in a public park.

B   She describes familiar things in a surprising
      way.

C   She uses lines of varying length.

D   She contrasts the swan with other birds.