The Lynching Quizzes

The Lynching Quiz

1 In what year was "The Lynching" first published?

1917

1921

1920

1919
2 How can we best describe the function of the poem's form?

As a prayer for the victim of the lynching

As a report on the specifics of a particular case

As a critique of America's perverse love of lynching

As a plea asking God to intervene
3 What Christian concept does the phrase "awful sin" refer to?

Divine intervention

Original sin

Venial sin

Eternal sin
4 What color are the women's "steely" eyes in line 12?

The poem does not say

Blue

Green

Brown
5 What word does McKay rather surprisingly not capitalize?

Day

Spirit

Father

Fate
6 What is the name of the 1922 collection of McKay's poetry that includes "The Lynching"?

Songs of Protest

The Weary Blues

Home to Harlem

Harlem Shadows
7 What do the children do in the poem's final line?

Dance

Cry

Stare

Run Away
8 What details does the poem tell us about the victim?

The poem tells us where he is from

The poem tells us his age

The poem tells us his profession

The poem does not tell us any details
9 How many similes and metaphors does McKay use in the poem?

None

Six

Two

Four
10 What feature of the "Shakespearean" sonnet form does the poem employ?

An EFEF rhyme scheme in stanza 3

A final rhyming couplet

An ABAB rhyme scheme in stanza 1

A division into octave and sestet
11 What verb does the poem use to describe the women coming to look at the body?

Thronged

Filed

Crowded

Gathered
12 What consonant sound is repeated several times in the opening line?

"S" sound

"B" sound

"T" sound

"N" sound
13 Where are the religious terms located in the poem?

Only at the beginning and the end

All in the beginning

Dispersed throughout the poem

All in the end
14 What is the poetic term for the ABBA, CDDC, and EFFE stanzas that the poem employs?

Mirror stanzas

Envelope stanzas

Petrarchan stanzas

Folded stanzas
15 Which of the following words does McKay NOT use to refer to the victim?

Body

Corpse

Char

Thing
16 What notable formal feature is only used in the poem's third quatrain?

Enjambment

Caesura

Personification

Apostrophe
17 Which of the following poets also wrote a poem entitled "The Lynching"?

Anne Spencer

Dorothea Mathews

Langston Hughes

Countee Cullen
18 What syntactical element—typically common in McKay's poetry—is NOT present in "The Lynching"?

Parentheses

Exclamation points

Conjunctions

Semicolons
19 How does the speaker describe the crowds in line 9?

Steely

Large

White

Mixed
20 What famous star does McKay allude to in the second stanza?

The Dog Star

The North Star

The Star of David

Halley's Comet
21 What does Dorothea Mathew's "The Lynching" have in common with McKay's poem?

An emphasis on the interiority of the victim

A neutral description of the lynch mob

References to animals

A description of stars above the scene
22 What does the "bright and solitary star" ultimately do to the victim?

It guides him

It commemorates him

It gives him up

It comforts him
23 Which of the following is NOT a central theme of the poem?

The continuity of racial violence

Forgiveness of sin

The dehumanization and objectification of black bodies

The incomparable horrors of lynching
24 Which of the following characteristics does "The Lynching" share with McKay's "America"?

Its radical use of the sonnet form

Its conception of masculinity

Its sense that America's empire will fall

Its heavy reliance on figurative language
25 What does "The Lynching" have in common with "If We Must Die"?

A classical conception of heroism

An idealized notion of masculinity

A trenchant critique of racialized violence

Explicit comparisons to inhuman predators and monsters

Are you referring to The Lynching?

Asked by ciara D #1240880

Answered by Aslan on 6/2/2022 4:52 PM

Claude McKay 1889-1948 Lynching

In the year before McKay published "The Lynching," 76 black men and women were lynched, the highest number in 15 years, and records suggest that 4,743 people—3,446 of them black—were lynched between 1882 and 1968, though many lynchings also went...

Asked by Wizyblack W #1155421

Answered by jill d #170087 on 5/31/2021 10:07 AM

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What is the mood

Inthink the mood uses a sense of irony to convey a feeling of horror and tragedy.

Asked by Djimon L #916243

Answered by Aslan on 7/16/2019 3:37 PM

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The Lynching

by Claude McKay

The Lynching Quiz

The Lynching Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Lynching

Essays for The Lynching