Multiple Genres: Analyzing the Effect of Rhyme, Meter, and Graphical Elements in Poetry (TEKS.ELA.7.8.B) Practice Test

The river keeps a patient, even time, it taps its knuckles softly on the bank; along the reeds it hums a silver rhyme, and nudges pebbles, rank by hollow rank. The heron waits, a clock of feathered gray, while clouds drift slow, like notes across a score; the current counts the light that slides away, then starts again, the same as just before. My breath falls in, then out, to match the sound, the steady push that polishes a stone; I learn from water how to stand my ground, by moving, moving, never quite alone.

We sit on the porch and watch the sky hold its breath - a green hush folding the fields. The dog pricks one ear, then waits. Far off, a screen door slams, and after the slam, nothing. Leaf edges stiffen. A moth bumps the bulb, once, twice, until the black rips open.