Answer:
The details from the text that best support the analysis that the narrator is in awe of the city at night are indeed:
2. “I thought to myself ‘This is a strong magic’ and trembled.”
3. “That was a sight indeed—yes, that was a sight: I could not have seen it in the body—my body would have died.”
5. “It was magic what they could do—it was magic what they did."
Explanation:
"By the Waters of Babylon" is a short story written by author Stephen Vincent Benét, published in 1937. The main character and narrator, John, is a priest in a post-apocalyptic future. After man has built weapons of mass destruction and annihilated the cities as we know them, society has regressed to a more primitive way of living. People have learned to fear metal, believing it to carry spirits and death from the ancient world where the gods used to live.
John goes on a journey to a Dead Place - New York. No human being lives in the city any longer. Being a priest, John is supposed to be stronger than other humans, being capable of touching metal without dying - a fact that is actually a superstition. As he spends the night in the city, he has a vision in the form of a dream. Through this vision, he finds out that the beings who lived there were not gods, but human beings like himself and his people. He sees what the city used to look, sound, and feel like, and he is awestruck. He realizes how powerful and knowledgeable humankind once was. He calls it magic, since it is still beyond any explanation. He fears such power, thinking his body wouldn't have been able to stand it if he had been there in reality, not in a vision. The details that best reveal his awe are:
2. “I thought to myself ‘This is a strong magic’ and trembled.”
3. “That was a sight indeed—yes, that was a sight: I could not have seen it in the body—my body would have died.”
5. “It was magic what they could do—it was magic what they did."
