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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 8 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In lines 2 and 3, the expression "when the night lets fall/ Its veil" is an example of which technique?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Antithesis.
(c) Personification.
(d) Simile.

2. 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 7, "Through the long night until the silver break."
(c) Line 9, "Through the lone night until the last snow-flake."
(d) Line 12, "Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street."

3. What does the word "shod" in line 12 refer to?
(a) Movement.
(b) Sound.
(c) Footwear.
(d) Clothing.

4. In line 16, what word does the speaker use to describe the feet of his own race?
(a) Aching.
(b) Prideful.
(c) Sacred.
(d) Fearful.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which lines of each stanza are indented?

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

3. What is being referred to with the expression "silver break" (line 7)?

4. In line 1, "footsteps of a lass" is an example of which technique?

5. What does the expression "feet of clay" in line 15 refer to?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the form of this poem.

2. What indications does the speaker give that he feels the sex workers' choices indicate something about all Black people in America?

3. How does McKay convey the idea that these women are sex workers?

4. Where is Harlem and why is it significant to the meaning of this poem?

5. What does the poem conclude is the cause of the women's choice to pursue sex work?

6. How does the use of the word "prowling" contrast with the poem's previous descriptions of the women?

7. How does the second stanza set up a contrast between dark and light?

8. What is the poem's first image, and how does it set a tone for the rest of the poem?

(see the answer keys)

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