Which two couplets best establish the voice of the speaker as a serious and determined person? He Had His Dream
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
He had his dream and all through life.
Worked up to it through toil and strife.
Afloat fore'er before his eyes
It colored for him all his skies:
The storm-cloud dark
Above his bar
The calm and listless vault of blue
Took on its hopeful hue.
it tinctured every passing beam-
He had his dream
He labored hard and failed at last.
His sails too weak to bear the blast.
The raging tempests tore away
And sent his beating bark astray.
But what cared he

He saw through every cloud a gleam -

He had his dream

Explanation:

You didn't provide the last stanza of the poem. This is what it looks like:

But what cared he

For wind or sea!

He said, "The tempest will be short,

My bark will come to port."

He saw through every cloud a gleam--

He had his dream.

The options you were given are the following:

A couplet is a pair of successive lines in a verse. The couplet that best shows us that the speaker is a serious and determined person is the fourth one.

The poem tells about a man who doesn't lose hope, no matter how difficult the things he faces are. He was poor, but he worked hard to achieve his dreams (he worked up to it through toil and strife). Instead of giving up during the bad times, he kept pushing, saying that the tempest will be short. What he focused on were the good things awaiting him after the tempest. That is the gleam, the dream mentioned in the last couplet. All that matters to him is to make his dream come true.

This is why the last couplet is the correct one.

the anecdote makes readers feel sorry for the man’s lack of heritage, then reminds readers that the man has an equally valuable heritage.