Question

This is for the woman with one black wing
perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect
among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the
peasant,
who painted herself a present—
wildflowers entwining the plaster corset
her spine resides in, that flaming pillar—
this priestess in the romance of mirrors.

Each night she lay down in pain and rose
to the celluloid butterflies of her Beloved Dead,
Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the
footstead.
And rose to her easel, the hundred dogs panting
like children along the graveled walks of the
garden, Diego’s
love a skull in the circular window
of the thumbprint searing her immutable brow.

–“Sonnet in Primary Colors,”
Rita Dove

Which statement is true of both Dove’s poem and Kahlo’s painting?

They indicate the importance of natural elements in Kahlo’s life.
They make the audience aware of Kahlo’s unique features and strength.
They reference the pain that caused Kahlo’s lifelong suffering.
They point to Kahlo’s acceptance of different philosophies.

Answer 1

They reference the pain that caused Kahlo’s lifelong suffering.

Evidence: Dove’s poem mentions the “plaster corset,” lying “down in pain,” and the “flaming pillar” spine—explicit images of Kahlo’s injuries. Kahlo’s self‑portraits (e.g., The Broken Column, Henry Ford Hospital) similarly foreground her physical trauma and chronic pain.