Question

eros turannos
edwin arlington robinson
she fears him, and will always ask
what fated her to choose him,
she meets in his engaging mask
all reasons to refuse him,
but what she meets and what she fears
are less than are the downward years,
drawn slowly to the foamless weirs
of age, were she to lose him.

between a blurred sagacity
that once had power to sound him,
and love, that will not let him be
the judas that she found him,
her pride assuages her almost,
as if it were alone the cost. —
he sees that he will not be lost,
and waits and looks around him.

a sense of ocean and old trees
envelops and allures him,
tradition, touching all he sees,

one way the author presents the universal theme is by
a including, in the last stanza, imagery of nature and its power
b introducing, in the first stanza, the conflict of the protagonist
c expressing, in the last stanza, the dissonance felt by the protagonist
d introducing, in the first stanza, the imagery prevalent throughout the poem

Explanation:

First, analyze each option:

• Option A: The last stanza uses nature imagery (ocean, old trees) to symbolize the inescapable, universal pull of tradition and time, which ties to the universal theme of entrapment in toxic, long-standing relational dynamics.
• Option B: The first stanza introduces the protagonist's fear and conflict, but this is a character-specific setup, not a presentation of the universal theme.
• Option C: The last stanza does not focus on the protagonist's dissonance; it centers on the allure of tradition/nature tied to the universal theme.
• Option D: The first stanza does not introduce the imagery that runs throughout the poem; the nature imagery appears only in the final stanza.

Answer:

A. including, in the last stanza, imagery of nature and its power