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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. Whose presence is implied in "To bend and barter at desire's call" (line 4)?
(a) Clients.
(b) Bystanders.
(c) Pimps.
(d) Police officers.

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

3. What is being referred to with the expression "silver break" (line 7)?
(a) Dawn.
(b) Streetlights.
(c) Reflections.
(d) Headlights.

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

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

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. What are the sex workers wearing on their feet?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the form of this poem.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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