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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "Harlem Shadows," Lines 1-18.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are the sex workers wearing on their feet?
(a) Elaborate shoes with high heels.
(b) Thick-soled shoes that make them appear taller.
(c) Light shoes meant to be worn indoors.
(d) Boots meant to protect them from snow and rain.

2. In line 1, "footsteps of a lass" is an example of which technique?
(a) Alliteration.
(b) Synesthesia.
(c) Onomatopoeia.
(d) Sibilance.

3. Which line most clearly echoes the tension between "little girls" (line 5) and "prowling" (line 6)?
(a) Line 11, "The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet."
(b) Line 12, "Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street."
(c) Line 9, "Through the lone night until the last snow-flake."
(d) Line 7, "Through the long night until the silver break."

4. Which two lines of each stanza create a kind of refrain in this poem?
(a) The second and fourth.
(b) The first and sixth.
(c) The fifth and sixth.
(d) The first and third.

5. In the first image of the sex workers, what is being emphasized?
(a) Their determination.
(b) The burden of social expectations.
(c) The motion of their bodies.
(d) Their reaction to the cold.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose presence is implied in "To bend and barter at desire's call" (line 4)?

2. Which techniques are evident in line 4, "To bend and barter at desire's call"?

3. What ideas are associated with the snow in this poem?

4. What does the word "shod" in line 12 refer to?

5. In line 16, what word does the speaker use to describe the feet of his own race?

(see the answer key)

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