DIRECTIONS: Read the selection, and answer the following questions.
The Tropics in New York
Claude McKay
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,°
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
5 Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
In benediction° over nun-like hills.
My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;
10 A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
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2. alligator pears: avocados, tropical fruits. All the foods mentioned in this stanza grow in Jamaica, the Caribbean island where the poet was born.
6. rills: streams; brooks.
8. benediction: blessing.
The title of the poem, “The Tropics in New York,” is ironic because —
a.
it is a very unusual title for a poem
b.
sometimes it gets extremely hot in New York
c.
we don’t expect to find the tropics in New York
d.
the weather is a lot nicer in the tropics