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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) Stubbornness and selfishness.
(b) A hidden character flaw.
(c) Cowardice and fear.
(d) A delicate, easily-fractured nature.

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

3. What ideas are associated with the snow in this poem?
(a) Circumstance, poverty, and innocence.
(b) Prejudice, indifference, and suffering.
(c) Punishment, corruption, and justice.
(d) Heaven, purity, and nature.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What color does the speaker assign to the sex workers' feet?

3. Which lines of each stanza are indented?

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

5. Which line most clearly echoes the tension between "little girls" (line 5) and "prowling" (line 6)?

(see the answer key)

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