English

Rylee Kline

28 July, 09:57

Read the following excerpt from "To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

We look before and after,

And pine for what is not:

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Yet if we could scorn

Hate, and pride, and fear;

If we were things born

Not to shed a tear,

I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.

What is the role of the paradox in the first stanza?"

A. To show that we can't experience joy without feeling pain

B. To show the contradiction between good and evil

C. To show that we always crave things we don't have

D. To show that some things can be both sad and enjoyable