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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 does the expression "feet of clay" in line 15 refer to?
(a) Cowardice and fear.
(b) Stubbornness and selfishness.
(c) A delicate, easily-fractured nature.
(d) A hidden character flaw.

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

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

4. Which techniques are evident in line 4, "To bend and barter at desire's call"?
(a) Personification and asyndeton.
(b) Asyndeton and euphony.
(c) Alliteration and personification.
(d) Euphony and alliteration.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. In lines 2 and 3, the expression "when the night lets fall/ Its veil" is an example of which technique?

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

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

(see the answer key)

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