Function of Symbols: Poetry Practice Test

Read the poem embedded below, then answer the question.

We clean out my grandmother’s house in a single weekend,

moving through rooms like careful thieves.

The curtains smell of fried onions and hymnals.

In the attic, heat presses its palm to our necks

while boxes exhale their paper years.

My cousin finds letters tied with ribbon,

I find the broken compass in a tin of buttons—

its needle pinned forever to a shallow tremble.

"Your granddad carried it overseas," my aunt says,

and sets it back as if it might wake.

Downstairs, the realtor measures doorways,

calling them by numbers, not by memories.

In context, the broken compass most likely symbolizes​

Read the poem embedded below, then answer the question.

My brother calls from the airport, voice thin with delay.

He says the loudspeaker keeps mispronouncing cities,

turning departures into jokes.

At home, I fold laundry and listen

to the washing machine’s steady spin,

a calm I do not deserve.

On the table, our father’s old wristwatch

still ticks, though no one has wound it in years.

Its second hand circles like a dog returning

to the same patch of grass.

I hold it to my ear and hear, beneath the ticking,

the stubborn insistence of being counted.

In context, the wristwatch most likely functions as a symbol of​