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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Urns. They're all Grecian to us.

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The word "overwrought" in line 42 acts as which of the following?

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And here are the potential answers...

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All right, so we need to look at line 42 and determine what the word "overwrought" is doing there.

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First... it would be good to know what the word means in the first place...

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It looks something like "overweight," but we somehow doubt the writer is talking about

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portly maidens here.

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The urn is only so big...

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The "over" prefix generally accentuates the word it's attached to... so overwrought means very... something.

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We've probably seen the word "wrought" in "wrought iron"... which is iron that's been

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beaten, shaped... basically, it's been through the ringer.

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So if the word overwrought is assigned to a person... it's saying something like...

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that person is very agitated or stressed.

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But... is that what it means HERE? Or are they trying to pull one over on us?

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If we look at line 42:

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Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

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We COULD be talking about men and maidens who are stressed out. They certainly don't

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appear to have much hair left...

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But look at the next line:

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With forest branches and the trodden weed;

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So these maidens are "overwrought"... with forest branches and weeds.

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In other words... they're "over-decorated" with their various... twigs and whatnot.

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Either way, it's definitely an adjective and not a verb...

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...so we can nix options D and E for sure.

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And we already established that it's the men and maidens the word is describing...

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...so it looks like B is our answer.

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So yeah... apparently people liked to dress in shrubbery back then.

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There's no accounting for taste.

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