Question 19 - Language Arts: Reading Practice Test for the HiSET Test

What does “it” refer to in lines 13–16 of the attached poem, reproduced here?

If certain, when this life was out,
That yours and mine should be,
I’d toss it yonder like a rind,
And taste eternity.

[“If You Were Coming in the Fall”]

\[\begin{array}{ll} {\quad} & \;\;\text{If you were coming in the fall,} \\ {\quad} & \;\;\text{I'd brush the summer by} \\ {\quad} & \;\;\text{With half a smile and half a spurn,} \\ {\quad} & \;\;\text{As housewives do a fly.} \\ \end{array}\] \[\begin{array}{ll} {\quad\quad5} \; & \;\;\text{If I could see you in a year,} \\ {\quad\quad} \quad & \;\;\text{I'd wind the months in balls,} \\ {\quad\quad} \quad & \;\;\text{And put them each in separate drawers,} \\ {\quad\quad} \quad & \;\;\text{Until their time befalls.} \\ \end{array}\] \[\begin{array}{ll} {\quad} & \;\;\;\text{If only centuries delayed,} \\ {10} & \;\;\;\text{I'd count them on my hand,} \\ {\quad} & \;\;\;\text{Subtracting till my fingers dropped} \\ {\quad} & \;\;\;\text{Into Van Diemen's land.} \\ \end{array}\] \[\begin{array}{ll} {\quad} & \text{If certain, when this life was out,} \\ {\quad} & \text{That yours and mine should be,} \\ {15} & \text{I'd toss it yonder like a rind,} \\ {\quad} & \text{And taste eternity.} \\ \end{array}\] \[\begin{array}{ll} {\;} & \;\;\text{But now, all ignorant of the length} \\ {\;} & \;\;\text{Of time's uncertain wing,} \\ {\;} & \;\;\text{It goads me, like the goblin bee,} \\ {20} & \;\;\text{That will not state its sting.} \\ \end{array}\]

Retrieved from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12242

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