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Example Question #691 : Sat Subject Test In Literature
Passage adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard (in public domain)
[Cyrano speaks to Roxane.]
CYRANO:
- Ay, true, the feeling
- Which fills me, terrible and jealous, truly
- Love,--which is ever sad amid its transports!
- Love,--and yet, strangely, not a selfish passion!
- I for your joy would gladly lay mine own down,
- --E'en though you never were to know it,--never!
- --If but at times I might--far off and lonely,--
- Hear some gay echo of the joy I bought you!
- Each glance of thine awakes in me a virtue,--
- A novel, unknown valor. Dost begin, sweet,
- To understand? So late, dost understand me?
- Feel'st thou my soul, here, through the darkness mounting?
- Too fair the night! Too fair, too fair the moment!
- That I should speak thus, and that you should hearken!
- Too fair! In moments when my hopes rose proudest,
- I never hoped such guerdon. Naught is left me
- But to die now! Have words of mine the power
- To make you tremble,--throned there in the branches?
- Ay, like a leaf among the leaves, you tremble!
- You tremble! For I feel,--an if you will it,
- Or will it not,--your hand's beloved trembling
- Thrill through the branches, down your sprays of jasmine!
The time of day in the scene is _____________.
Possible Answers:
It cannot be determined
afternoon
night
dusk
dawn
Correct answer:
night
Explanation:
Lines 12-13 tell us that it’s night:
"Feel'st thou my soul, here, through the darkness mounting?
Too fair the night . . ."
We know that Cyrano cannot see Roxane because he talks about "feeling" her trembling (rather than seeing her):
"I feel,--an if you will it,
Or will it not,--your hand's beloved trembling
Thrill through the branches . . ."
Maggie
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