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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 8 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Describe the form of this poem.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read Claude McKay's poem "America" (widely available online). Note the use of antithesis in this poem. How is it similar to the use of antithesis in "Harlem Shadows"? How is it different? Write a comparison and contrast of the use of antithesis in these two poems. Show how the technique is used in each poem and offer commentary on its purposes. Support your observations with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the poem, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

In "Harlem Shadows," how does the personification in the first stanza create an aura of sympathy around the sex workers' situation? Does that sympathy continue throughout the poem? What feelings are attributed to the women? Are their voices ever heard? How is the choice to attribute feelings to them and not let them speak for themselves consistent with the purpose of the personification in the first stanza? How do other techniques, like antithesis, metonymy, synecdoche, diction, imagery, and symbolism work together with that personification to remove agency from the sex workers? How does this loss of agency support the poem's meaning? Write an essay in which you consider how McKay uses personification and other rhetorical devices to create a unified picture of the sex workers as more object than subject. Use both quoted and paraphrased evidence to support your claims, making sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you consider the symbolic imagery of feet in "Harlem Shadows." Consider their structural placement throughout the poem and what this is meant to convey. Consider how these feet and footsteps are described--what feelings and associations are they meant to convey? Consider their use as synecdoches to represent the sex workers and how this transfers feelings and ideas to the sex workers, as well. Be sure to show how the symbolic imagery related to feet and footsteps supports the overall meaning of the poem, and support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem. Cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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