What do the 'red signals sent out' suggest?
Pick an option to check yourself, or open the answer below.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. The speaker's distress and desperation
Explanation
Like flares from a drowning man, they are calls for rescue.
Note: Passage I is a love poem in the manner of Neruda's 'Leaning into the afternoons' (Twenty Love Poems, no. 7), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. In the afternoons the speaker casts his sad nets toward the beloved's 'oceanic eyes'. His solitude 'stretches and flares' like a drowning man's, and he sends out red signals over her 'absent eyes' that move like the sea near a lighthouse. Night comes on with its stars and dread.