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Langston Hughes: “The Weary Blues” and “Harlem”
Voices of the Harlem Renaissance
____1 The song performed in “The Weary Blues” addresses
a. all people who are unhappy
c. the musician’s poor health
b. the plight of underpaid musicians
d. men without children
____ 2. The musician in “The Weary Blues” feels tired because he
a. works all night
c. can’t find satisfaction
b. receives low wages
d. suffers from lack of sleep
____ 3. At the end of “The Weary Blues,” the musician
a. sleeps like the dead
c. smiles at the audience
b. meets the poet
d. passes around a hat
____ 4. According to the speaker in “Harlem,” conditions for people living in Harlem
a. improved after the birth of the blues
b. have deteriorated since they moved there
c. have not changed much over the years
d. will become better as time passes
____ 5. The speaker in “Harlem” uses “we” to refer to
a. residents of Manhattan
b. people selling bread in Harlem
c. people who remember the Depression
d. African Americans in Harlem
____6.In the final stanza of “Harlem,” people
a. thoughtfully observe the outside world
b. recall World War II
c. talk about the civil rights movement
d. decide to leave the neighborhood
____ 7. What is the main subject of “Harlem”?
a. the birth of the blues
c. the home of the Jazz Age
b. the problem of injustice
d. a funeral eulogy
____8.The conflict that Hughes describes in “Harlem” takes place between
a. rival poets
c. blacks and whites
b. shopkeepers and customers
d. guilt and innocence
____ 9. The conversational style in “Harlem” is achieved by use of
a. personification
c. alliteration
b. free verse
d. end rhyme
____ 10. The piano in “The Weary Blues” is personified as a person
a. shouting
c. sleeping
b. moaning
d. dancing
____ 11. The tone of “The Weary Blues” is
a. sympathetic
b. disgusted
c. optimistic
d. patronizing
Literary Element: Rhythm
____ 12. Rhythms in “The Weary Blues”
a. are highly regular
b. reflect the rhythms of blues music
c. require piano in the background
d. are those of the traditional sonnet
____ 13. The type of poetry that could best accommodate the “syncopated” rhythm
referred to in “The Weary Blues” is
a. the sonnet
c. the villanelle
b. free verse
d. blank verse
Literary Element: Tone
____14.The tone of a work refers to the
a. atmosphere created by the work
b. emotions of the narrator
c. attitude of the writer
d. way in which a writer uses
language
____ 15. “Harlem” conveys all of the following except
a. caution
c. frustration
b. anger
d. cynicism