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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which lines of each stanza are indented?

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

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

4. Which two lines of each stanza create a kind of refrain in this poem?

5. What are the sex workers wearing on their feet?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the form of this poem.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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