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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The poem "Late Last Night" depicts the subject as he sits in what location while he cries over his lost love?

2. What type of literary device is used consistently within the first three lines of the poem entitled "Mississippi"?

3. How many poems within the collection Vintage Hughes include stage directions regarding a particular element of the poem's performance?

4. From what type of building would a black Jesus be turned away, according to the speaker of the poem entitled "Bible Belt"?

5. What types of trees are featured in the ending of the poem entitled "Birmingham Sunday"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the Existential viewpoint of the poem entitled "Advice"?

2. In what way is the theme of collectivism present within the poem entitled "To You"?

3. What possibilities does Hughes imagine in relation to a "dream deferred" (108) in perhaps his most famous poem, entitled "Harlem [2]"?

4. What is the setting of the poem entitled "Projection"?

5. For what purpose does Hughes use allusion within the poem entitled "Projection"?

6. What state is being described within the poem that contains as its first three lines the words, "Oh, what sorrow!/Oh, what pity!/Oh, what pain" (115)?

7. In what way is repetition utilized within the poem entitled "Song for Billie Holiday"?

8. In the poem that begins with three different interjections to do with "sorrow" and "pity" and "pain" (115), what type of eyes is terror said to have?

9. What does the speaker of the poem entitled "Junior Addict" suggest as the solution for the addiction problem in the subject?

10. Discuss two examples of personification within the poem entitled "Georgia Dusk."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how and why Hughes instills three different humanist messages into the collection entitled Vintage Hughes.

Essay Topic 2

What is the function of Mrs. Ellsworth’s character within the story entitled "The Blues I’m Playing"? Discuss the characterization methods used by Hughes in depicting Mrs. Ellsworth and include in your discussion the reasons that Hughes portrays Mrs. Ellsworth in these particular ways.

Essay Topic 3

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within the collection entitled Vintage Hughes. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the collection.

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