Also in 2025 Practice Test B English, question 42.
Passage Letter from Brooklyn
Letter from Brooklyn
by Jacob Scheier
I can already see how this will end.
How I will grow tired of the bridge’s
steep incline, and the absent-minded tourists
wandering into the bicycle path.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
For now it is the early edge of fall,
leaves green still while the air narrows,
is slightly crisp, almost grazing
the hair of my arm like a passing stranger,
as though the air has been forced into intimacy
by the brevity of daylight.
But when it starts darkening at 4,
this closeness, I know, will be a felt distance,
like someone drawing your attention
to their lack of intimacy.
These days I am still walking at a cathedral pace
beneath the branches bending across avenues,
brownstones like rows of lived-in chapels,
like a pop-up picture book I could have had as a child,
but didn’t. How Brooklyn makes me nostalgic
for the moment I am walking inside of.
These late afternoons filled
with a loneliness that makes me feel
distinctly myself, and an awareness
of how rare that is.
“Letter from Brooklyn” from LETTER FROM BROOKLYN: POEMS by Jacob Scheier, published by ECW Press. Copyright © 2013 by Jacob Scheier All rights reserved.
brevity: briefness
cathedral: meditative
chapels: private places of prayer or worship
nostalgic: yearning for the past
Question
Read lines 5–6 from the poem.
The weather will turn cold.
But that all happens later.
How do the lines develop a central theme of the poem?
- AThey highlight a contrast between the different seasons.
- BThey show the sequence of the changes that are expected to occur.
- CThey warn about a problem that requires thoughtful preparation.
- DThey emphasize the importance of valuing the present.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The question asks how lines 5–6 develop a central theme of the poem.
A. Incorrect. In this poem, the speaker describes the impressions of one day in one season: “For now it is the early edge of fall, / leaves green still while the air narrows, / is slightly crisp” (lines 7–9). Despite the reference in line 5 to the eventual arrival of cold weather, lines 5–6 primarily emphasize the speaker’s wish to stay focused on the present moment. A contrast between seasons is not a central theme of the poem.
B. Incorrect. The words “The weather will turn cold” in line 5 refer to one change that is expected to occur, but lines 5–6 do not show a sequence of changes. The line that follows returns to the present: “For now . . .” (line 7).
C. Incorrect. Although the statement that the weather “will turn cold” in line 5 could be construed as a warning, there is no support in lines 5–6 for the idea that some problems require thoughtful preparation. The speaker is reflecting on a fleeting experience, not preparing to solve a problem.
D. CORRECT. Immediately after the line “The weather will turn cold” (line 5), the speaker returns to the current moment: “But that all happens later” (line 6). These lines help develop a central theme by emphasizing the speaker’s choice to value and focus on the present moment. The “But” at the start of line 6 shows the speaker pulling back from the future and refocusing on the present, thus emphasizing the importance of savoring “the moment I am walking inside of” (line 22).
Question analysis
This theme question quotes two short lines from early in “Letter from Brooklyn,” where the speaker says the weather will turn cold, and asks how they develop a central theme of the poem. Students must work out what the pair of lines does at that point and connect it to the whole poem, since each choice describes something two lines about the future could plausibly do.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Explaining how particular lines develop a poem's theme is core grade 7 work. These two lines are short and plainly worded, so the demand lies in relating them to the theme of the whole poem, which is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- How, not what moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 217 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 5, 63 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Two short, plain lines carry a theme only when read with their neighbors: the speaker forecasts cold, then dismisses it with “But that all happens later” and returns to “For now.” Students who read line 5 alone take the pair as a forecast and look for contrast, sequence or warning. The tempting contrast choice has some truth, since “But” does mark a turn, yet the turn is from future to present, not from one season to another.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Line 6 never says the present matters; students infer it from “But” pulling back from the forecast and from “For now” in line 7 turning to the early fall around the speaker. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how two lines develop a theme, so students must see their job, setting the future aside, rather than their content, a prediction of cold weather. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Read the lines just before and after lines 5–6, decide what the speaker does with the thought of cold weather, and connect that to what the poem as a whole keeps returning to.
Traps
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Sees cold weather set against early fall and hears contrast in “But,” yet the turn in line 6 is from later to now, and the poem never weighs one season against another.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Takes the opening forecast, tiring of the bridge and the tourists and then the cold, as a sequence, though lines 5–6 name one change and then set it aside.
C Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Treats the coming cold as a problem to plan for, though the speaker makes no preparations and simply dismisses the future with “But that all happens later.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This question asks how lines 5–6 help build a theme. A theme is a big message about life that a poem keeps coming back to. So ask what these two lines do in the poem. Then link that to the whole poem.
Read the lines in place
Lines 1–5 look ahead. The speaker will grow tired of the bridge and the tourists, and “The weather will turn cold.” Then line 6 says, “But that all happens later.” Line 7 begins “For now it is the early edge of fall.” So the speaker thinks of the future, then pushes it aside.
Put it in your own words
“But” marks a turn. The speaker turns from later back to now. It is like saying, Sure, winter is coming, but it isn’t here yet. Then the poem spends many lines enjoying the fall walk. Line 22 speaks of “the moment I am walking inside of.” So lines 5–6 help show a big idea: enjoy the present while you have it.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. The turn is from later to now, not from one season to another. The poem doesn’t compare seasons.
- B is wrong. Lines 5–6 name one change, cold weather, and then set it aside. That is not a sequence, or series of steps.
- C is wrong. The speaker doesn’t get ready for the cold. The speaker simply says it “happens later.”
- D is right. The lines push the future aside so the speaker can enjoy the present.
Watch out: A is tempting because “But” signals a contrast. Ask what is being contrasted. It is later and now, not two seasons.
Choose the answer
Valuing means treating something as precious. So the answer is D: “They emphasize the importance of valuing the present.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because line 6 does turn with “But.” Yet the turn moves from the future back to “For now.” The poem never weighs one season against another. It keeps coming back to the present moment, which is what D says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Letter from Brooklyn” as printed (page 50)
