Which excerpt from Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush" most plainly expresses awe for its subject?

Question

a. "So little cause for carolings/Of such ecstatic sound..." (correct choice)
b. "I leant upon a coppice gate/When Frost was spectre-gray..."
c. "The tangled bine-stems scored the sky,/Like strings of broken lyres..." (incorrect choice)
d. "The land's sharp features seemed to be/The Century's corpse outleant..."

While taking the test, I chose answer C, but the correct answer is A. I would like to know why this is. Can someone please help?

Answer 1

Are you clear on the true meaning of "awe"? (And I don't mean the casual way it and "awesome" are used today.)
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/awe

C contains negatives (tangled, bine-stems, scored, broken), while A contains a very positive phrase: "such ecstatic sound" --

[in the middle of the very harsh winter, when everyone is staying home by their fires]
...
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

The old bird had no reason to be so happy, but he was, and he sang his evening song anyway!