96 + Mcqs in Modern Poetry & Poetics in English Literature Page 2 McqOptions

51.	Which of the following best characterizes the contrast between Gertrude Stein’s poetry and Imagist poetry ?
A.	Stein experimented only with the sound qualities of language, whereas the Imagists focused on visual imagery.
B.	Stein experimented with language that skirted the edges of sense, whereas the Imagists sought precision and clarity of expression.
C.	Stein sought to combine classical poetic form with contemporary content, whereas the Imagists used traditional poetic subject matter but experimented
D.	Stein sought precision and clarity in her poems, whereas the Imagists sought experimental forms that enhanced visual imagery.
Answer» C. Stein sought to combine classical poetic form with contemporary content, whereas the Imagists used traditional poetic subject matter but experimented

Discussion

52.	What was the primary significance of “The Book of American Negro Poetry” (1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson ?
A.	It established an authoritative and unquestionable canon of African American poetry.
B.	It inspired Harlem Renaissance writers to establish a tradition of African American poetry.
C.	It presented African American writers to a previously indifferent white audience.
D.	It provided literary criticism on African American poetry.
Answer» C. It presented African American writers to a previously indifferent white audience.

Discussion

53.	What is the principal subject of Marianne Moore’s poem “An Octopus” ?
A.	Death
B.	Mt. Rainier
C.	The ocean
D.	An octopus
Answer» C. The ocean

Discussion

54.	What is the most notable characteristic of Ezra Pound’s “In a Station at the Metro” ?
A.	The form of a villanelle
B.	The use of synesthesia
C.	The use of simile
D.	The use of metaphor
Answer» E.

Discussion

55.	What is the “double-bind” that African- American women poets encountered in the thirties and forties, according to Anthony Walton’s essay ?
A.	Being overworked in menial jobs having to raise large families
B.	Being a subordinated woman in a male dominated culture and a member of a suppressed minority race in the middle of a dominant white culture
C.	Having little formal education with little access to publishers
D.	Being ignored by a traditional poetry reading public because what they wrote about was the travails of subsistence living
Answer» C. Having little formal education with little access to publishers

Discussion

56.	What is the central theme of Keith Douglas’s “How to Kill” ?
A.	Combat detaches a man from humanity.
B.	All is fair in love and war.
C.	It is honorable and just to defend your country in a war.
D.	There is a right and a wrong way to throw a hand grenade.
Answer» B. All is fair in love and war.

Discussion

57.	What does Gertrude Stein’s term “the Lost Generation” designate ?
A.	It refers to a group of talented American émigré writers who lived in Europe after World War I.
B.	It refers to the young generation whose coming of age was interrupted by World War I.
C.	It refers to English poets who sought refuge in New York City after World War I ended.
D.	Both A and B
Answer» E.

Discussion

58.	What are some of the surface similarities between Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” and John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “Telling the Bees” ?
A.	They both address the theme of death.
B.	Both use formal meter to present a narrative structure.
C.	They are both set in rural New England.
D.	All of these answers
Answer» E.

Discussion

59.	Violet Cristoforo was honored for collecting what kind of poetry in her anthology “May Sky” ?
A.	Love sonnets from the Nazi death camps
B.	American G.I. poetry from German prisoner of war camps
C.	Jewish dissident poetry from the gulags in Siberia
D.	Haiku poetry from the Japanese internment camps in the US
Answer» E.

Discussion

60.	The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” ends with the following lines: “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory,/The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines ?
A.	Brooke’s inclusion of a quotation from Horace in these lines serves to emphasize the distance between the ideals ofWestern civilization and its real
B.	These lines suggest the author’s anger and disillusionment with cultural norms which glorify war.
C.	In these lines, Brooke seeks to bridge the gap between individual experience and cultural norms and beliefs.
D.	All of the above
Answer» E.

Discussion

61.	The first stanza of Countee Cullen’s “A Brown Girl Dead” reads: “With two white roses on her breasts,/White candles at head and feet,/Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;/Lord Death has found her sweet.” Which of the following statements accurately characterizes these lines ?
A.	These lines evoke Christian imagery to emphasize the dignity of the girl who died.
B.	These lines evoke Christian imagery to suggest that death erases racial divisions.
C.	These lines present the problem of racial prejudice in an ironic mode.
D.	Both A and B
Answer» E.

Discussion

62.	Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” opens with the following lines: “If I should die, think only this of me:/That there’s some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines and Brooke’s poem as a whole ?
A.	These lines and the poem as a whole use both the political concept of a nation and the spiritual concept of eternity to give meaning to soldiers’ de
B.	These lines and the poem as a whole are primarily concerned with the extension of Britain’s imperial power.
C.	These lines and the poem as a whole seek to directly express the horrors of war.
D.	These lines and the poem as a whole rely on assonance to magnify the critique of war expressed in the poem.
Answer» B. These lines and the poem as a whole are primarily concerned with the extension of Britain’s imperial power.

Discussion

63.	Professor Hammer argues that which of the following statements is true of Ezra Pound’s strong emphasis on poetic technique ?
A.	It serves to effectively depersonalize Pound’s poems.
B.	It serves the greater aim of conveying both intensity and immediacy in Pound’s poetry.
C.	It is a paradoxical mixture of personal and impersonal elements.
D.	It is a means of creating a dialogue between modernity and tradition.
Answer» C. It is a paradoxical mixture of personal and impersonal elements.

Discussion

64.	Professor Hammer argues that Marianne Moore’s poem “England” suggests which of the following ?
A.	Moore’s emotional and aesthetic attachment to England
B.	Moore’s harsh critique of the carnage of World War I
C.	Moore’s particular kind of combative American cultural nationalism
D.	Moore’s interest in England’s civilizing mission in the world
Answer» D. Moore’s interest in England’s civilizing mission in the world

Discussion

65.	Professor Hammer argues that in Hart Crane’s poem “Legend,” Crane introduces himself to his readers. The poem opens with the lines: “As silent as a mirror is believed/ Realities plunge in silence by …/I am not ready for repentance;” according to Professor Hammer, Crane’s refusal to repent is an assertion of which of the following ?
A.	His political views
B.	His will to imaginative freedom
C.	His will to sexual freedom
D.	Both B and C
Answer» E.

Discussion

66.	Professor Hammer points out that T.S. Eliot used quotation as an important literary technique. The use of quotations, according to Professor Hammer, suggests which of the following attitudes to the past ?
A.	Curiosity about the past
B.	Deference to the past
C.	Violation of the past
D.	Paradoxically both B and C
Answer» E.

Discussion

67.	Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens’s poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?
A.	Stevens’s poetry is primarily, though not explicitly, concerned with metaphysics.
B.	Stevens’s poetry investigates its own rules.
C.	Stevens’s poetry always addresses several different audiences.
D.	Stevens’s poetry highlights an objective voice.
Answer» C. Stevens’s poetry always addresses several different audiences.

Discussion

68.	Professor Hammer argues that Hart Crane’s poem “Voyages” is a complex reply to which of the following modernist works ?
A.	Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
B.	Ezra Pound’s “Cantos”
C.	T.S. Eliot’s “A Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
D.	T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land
Answer» E.

Discussion

69.	One of the dominant themes in Wallace Stevens’s poem “Sunday Morning” consists of the juxtaposition of nature against which set of cultural symbols ?
A.	The ideal of courtly love
B.	Elements of the Christian narrative of salvation
C.	The alchemical concept of the philosopher’s stone
D.	The Renaissance concept of humanism
Answer» C. The alchemical concept of the philosopher’s stone

Discussion

70.	Many critics see similarities between the tenets of Futurism and which of the following political philosophies ?
A.	Marxism
B.	Fascism
C.	Democracy
D.	Libertarianism
Answer» C. Democracy

Discussion

71.	Langston Hughes was among the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Which of the following is an accurate characterization of his experiences before he published his first book ?
A.	He was a native New Yorker who did not travel much but who was keenly aware of New York’s complexity and diversity.
B.	He moved to New York from Alabama and the stark contrast between these places deeply influenced his writing.
C.	He was born in Missouri and traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world before he moved to New York City.
D.	He spent most of his life in Washington, DC, moving to Harlem only after he gained literary fame.
Answer» D. He spent most of his life in Washington, DC, moving to Harlem only after he gained literary fame.

Discussion

72.	In Wallace Stevens’s poem “The Man on the Dump,” one can say that the trash symbolizes which of the following ?
A.	Artifacts from foreign cultures which do not fit into the American cultural context
B.	The broken dreams of the American émigré community in Paris
C.	Old poetry
D.	The failed attempt of modern poetry
Answer» D. The failed attempt of modern poetry

Discussion

73.	In T.S. Eliot’s essay called “Tradition and Individual Talent,” he argues that the progress of an artist consists of which of the following ?
A.	“Continual expansion of the personality and its diverse elements”
B.	“Continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality”
C.	“Continual transformation of the personality”
D.	“Continual identification with the past”
Answer» C. “Continual transformation of the personality”

Discussion

74.	In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism ?
A.	Most modernist poets lived in large cities; therefore, they often used urban imagery in their poetry.
B.	Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as
C.	Individuals often felt lost and alienated in large cities, and among poets this resulted in turning inward and focusing only on the world of one’s o
D.	All of these answers
Answer» C. Individuals often felt lost and alienated in large cities, and among poets this resulted in turning inward and focusing only on the world of one’s o

Discussion

75.	In his first lecture onWilliam Butler Yeats, Professor Hammer says that the young Yeats identified with King Goll. What does he mean by this ?
A.	Yeats’s poetry was autobiographical, but he understood his life through the prism of myths and symbols; symbolism was therefore present in both Yeat
B.	Yeats believed that each person was an instance of a general cultural type or symbol.
C.	The young Yeats wished to emphasize his identity as an English poet and draw attention away from his Irish heritage.
D.	Both A and B
Answer» E.

Discussion

76.	In his essay “The Symbolism of Poetry,” William Butler Yeats argues that which of the following is the purpose of rhythm ?
A.	To “amplify and clarify the indistinct emotions created by metaphorical symbols”
B.	To “prolong the moment of contemplation”
C.	To “counteract the forces of dispersal inherent in metaphorical language”
D.	To “make poetry new”
Answer» C. To “counteract the forces of dispersal inherent in metaphorical language”

Discussion

77.	In his essay “The Roots of Modernism,” Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe defines the modern period in the history of art as the time from roughly 1860 to 1970. How does he say modernism is typically defined ?
A.	Modernism is the art produced during the modern period.
B.	Modernism is the historical period which followed the modern period.
C.	Modernism is the philosophy of modern art.
D.	Both A and C
Answer» E.

Discussion

78.	In analyzing T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Professor Hammer argues that Eliot creates something that might be called which of the following ?
A.	“A meditation on contradictions”
B.	“Overheard inner speech”
C.	“Implicit dialogue with the future”
D.	“Objective correlative”
Answer» C. “Implicit dialogue with the future”

Discussion

79.	In Amy Lowell’s imagist poem, “This Green Bowl,” a handmade bowl is compared to a pond in the woods. Can one say that, as in Pound’s “Cantos,” this poem’s dominant tone is impersonal? Why, or why not ?
A.	Yes, Lowell’s detailed description of nature draws attention away from human realities.
B.	Yes, the lyrical voice in Lowell’s poem seeks to express universal rather than individual experience.
C.	No, Lowell’s poem is not impersonal; it addresses the maker of the bowl directly and speculates about his state of mind.
D.	No, even though Lowell strives for impersonal expression by borrowing poetic devices from Pound, she fails to accomplish this
Answer» D. No, even though Lowell strives for impersonal expression by borrowing poetic devices from Pound, she fails to accomplish this

Discussion

80.	“How can we live in this fear says one./From day to day says another.” ?
A.	Fear of the failure of a segregated educational system
B.	Fear of the AIDs crisis
C.	Fear of global nuclear war
D.	Fear of the economic Great Depression
Answer» D. Fear of the economic Great Depression

Discussion

81.	H.D.’s poem “Oread” reads: “WHIRL up, sea-/Whirl your pointed pines./Splash your great pines/On our rocks./Hurl your green over us-/Cover us with your pools of fir.” To which of the following categories does this poem belong ?
A.	Objectivist poetry
B.	Futurist poetry
C.	Imagist poetry
D.	Vorticist poetry
Answer» D. Vorticist poetry

Discussion

82.	Generally speaking, African-American themes were very rare in white modernist poetry. Which of the following white poets attempted to evoke elements of black experience in his or her poems ?
A.	H.D.
B.	Hart Crane
C.	William Carlos Williams
D.	T.S. Eliot
Answer» C. William Carlos Williams

Discussion

83.	Ezra Pound’s poem “In a Station of the Metro” reads: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.” Which of the following statements best characterizes this poem ?
A.	It seeks to diminish the distance between society and nature.
B.	It seeks to amplify the distance between society and nature.
C.	It plays with the relationship between the social, natural, and supernatural worlds.
D.	It evokes the beauty of a pastoral scene.
Answer» D. It evokes the beauty of a pastoral scene.

Discussion

84.	Ezra Pound’s “Cantos” may be called a modernist epic, though its form ultimately defies classification. Pound’s poem alludes to which of the following epic poems ?
A.	The Mahabharata
B.	Paradise Lost
C.	The Odyssey
D.	The Aeneid
Answer» D. The Aeneid

Discussion

85.	Ezra Pound’s “Canto XIV” opens with the line “Io venni in luogo d’ogni luce muto” [I came to a place devoid of light]. This creates a connection between the Canto and which of the following works ?
A.	Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
B.	Dante’s “Divine Comedy”
C.	Goethe’s “Faust”
D.	Thomas Mann’s “Doctor Faustus”
Answer» E.

Discussion

86.	Ezra Pound’s “Canto I” opens with the following lines: “And then went down to the ship,/Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and(…).” Which of the following statements best characterizes these lines and the poem as a whole ?
A.	These lines set an impersonal tone which dominates the entire poem.
B.	These lines establish a rhythmical pattern, which is followed strictly throughout the poem.
C.	These lines are the only impersonal lines in the poem, the rest of which is primarily focused on the complexity of human emotions.
D.	These lines establish a personal tone, focusing on a lyrical perspective similar to late-Victorian era poetry.
Answer» B. These lines establish a rhythmical pattern, which is followed strictly throughout the poem.

Discussion

87.	Complete the following sentence. Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” is a good example of High Modernism, because it_____________?
A.	embraces the rhythms and diction of common man’s speech.
B.	was written at the very beginning of the 20th century.
C.	attempts to create a modernist high culture.
D.	does not employ rhyme.
Answer» D. does not employ rhyme.

Discussion

88.	Complete the following sentence. Professor Hammer argues that Ezra Pound’s interest in fascism and his anti-Semitic views were likely an outcome of his______________?
A.	endorsement of Marxism.
B.	interest in ancient Rome.
C.	anti-capitalism.
D.	interest in Fourier’s utopian socialist thought.
Answer» D. interest in Fourier’s utopian socialist thought.

Discussion

89.	Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written_______________?
A.	around 1900.
B.	in the early stages of World War I.
C.	in the late stages of World War I.
D.	in the 1920s.
Answer» D. in the 1920s.

Discussion

90.	Complete the following sentence. Matthew Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach” is illustrative of modernist poetry, because it________________?
A.	employs free verse.
B.	has an undertow of nihilism.
C.	is chauvinistic about British “exceptionalism.”
D.	was composed between WW I and WW II.
Answer» C. is chauvinistic about British “exceptionalism.”

Discussion

91.	According to W.E.B. Dubois in his Atlantic Monthly essay, “The Strivings of the Negro People,” what are some of the personal consequences for an African- American living in a racist society at the beginning of the 20th century ?
A.	Feeling like an outcast in your own house
B.	Becoming a stuttering sycophant just to survive
C.	Wrapping yourself in the armor of anger and resentment
D.	All of the above
Answer» E.

Discussion

92.	According to the literary critic, Paul Fussell, which of the following was a central trope of English poetry written during the Great War ?
A.	Patriotic imagery
B.	Irony
C.	Nihilism
D.	Apocalyptic imagery
Answer» C. Nihilism

Discussion

93.	According to Professor Hammer, which of the following characteristics did Langston Hughes share with modernist poets like William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Hart Crane, and Robert Frost ?
A.	Hughes was very conscious that he was an American poet, and this profoundly influenced his writing.
B.	Hughes wrote about the legacy of the American Civil War and its long-term cultural consequences.
C.	Hughes introduced new subject-matter and new language into poetry.
D.	Both A and C
Answer» E.

Discussion

94.	According to Professor Hammer, which of the following is the central question explored by T.S. Eliot in “The Waste Land” ?
A.	Is authentic poetry possible in the aftermath of the carnage of World War I?
B.	Given the diversity of the world’s poetic traditions, can there be a universal language of poetic symbolism?
C.	How can a shared world be created out of the fundamentally different and private experiences of individual people?
D.	Given that each person experiences trauma differently, is it possible for all to understand the modern world as a shared “waste land”?
Answer» D. Given that each person experiences trauma differently, is it possible for all to understand the modern world as a shared “waste land”?

Discussion

95.	According to Professor Hammer, Wallace Stevens’s understanding of the imagination has most in common with which of the following literary traditions ?
A.	Imagism
B.	Classicism
C.	British Romanticism
D.	Vorticism
Answer» D. Vorticism

Discussion

96.	According to Langston Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (his answer to George Schuyler’s essay “Negro Art Hokum”), what is the “mountain” that stands in the way of “any true Negro art in America” ?
A.	It is the racial discrimination endemic in the white community.
B.	It is the racial segregation in the South.
C.	It is a widespread “urge toward whiteness” among African Americans.
D.	It is a widespread “urge to incorporate and neutralize other cultures” among white Americans.
Answer» D. It is a widespread “urge to incorporate and neutralize other cultures” among white Americans.

Discussion

Explore topic-wise MCQs in English Literature .

Which of the following best characterizes the contrast between Gertrude Stein’s poetry and Imagist poetry ?

What was the primary significance of “The Book of American Negro Poetry” (1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson ?

What is the principal subject of Marianne Moore’s poem “An Octopus” ?

What is the most notable characteristic of Ezra Pound’s “In a Station at the Metro” ?

What is the “double-bind” that African- American women poets encountered in the thirties and forties, according to Anthony Walton’s essay ?

What is the central theme of Keith Douglas’s “How to Kill” ?

What does Gertrude Stein’s term “the Lost Generation” designate ?

What are some of the surface similarities between Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” and John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “Telling the Bees” ?

Violet Cristoforo was honored for collecting what kind of poetry in her anthology “May Sky” ?

The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” ends with the following lines: “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory,/The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines ?

The first stanza of Countee Cullen’s “A Brown Girl Dead” reads: “With two white roses on her breasts,/White candles at head and feet,/Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;/Lord Death has found her sweet.” Which of the following statements accurately characterizes these lines ?

Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” opens with the following lines: “If I should die, think only this of me:/That there’s some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines and Brooke’s poem as a whole ?

Professor Hammer argues that which of the following statements is true of Ezra Pound’s strong emphasis on poetic technique ?

Professor Hammer argues that Marianne Moore’s poem “England” suggests which of the following ?

Professor Hammer points out that T.S. Eliot used quotation as an important literary technique. The use of quotations, according to Professor Hammer, suggests which of the following attitudes to the past ?

Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens’s poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?

Professor Hammer argues that Hart Crane’s poem “Voyages” is a complex reply to which of the following modernist works ?

One of the dominant themes in Wallace Stevens’s poem “Sunday Morning” consists of the juxtaposition of nature against which set of cultural symbols ?

Many critics see similarities between the tenets of Futurism and which of the following political philosophies ?

Langston Hughes was among the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Which of the following is an accurate characterization of his experiences before he published his first book ?

In Wallace Stevens’s poem “The Man on the Dump,” one can say that the trash symbolizes which of the following ?

In T.S. Eliot’s essay called “Tradition and Individual Talent,” he argues that the progress of an artist consists of which of the following ?

In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism ?

In his first lecture onWilliam Butler Yeats, Professor Hammer says that the young Yeats identified with King Goll. What does he mean by this ?

In his essay “The Symbolism of Poetry,” William Butler Yeats argues that which of the following is the purpose of rhythm ?

In his essay “The Roots of Modernism,” Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe defines the modern period in the history of art as the time from roughly 1860 to 1970. How does he say modernism is typically defined ?

In analyzing T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Professor Hammer argues that Eliot creates something that might be called which of the following ?

In Amy Lowell’s imagist poem, “This Green Bowl,” a handmade bowl is compared to a pond in the woods. Can one say that, as in Pound’s “Cantos,” this poem’s dominant tone is impersonal? Why, or why not ?

“How can we live in this fear says one./From day to day says another.” ?

H.D.’s poem “Oread” reads: “WHIRL up, sea-/Whirl your pointed pines./Splash your great pines/On our rocks./Hurl your green over us-/Cover us with your pools of fir.” To which of the following categories does this poem belong ?

Generally speaking, African-American themes were very rare in white modernist poetry. Which of the following white poets attempted to evoke elements of black experience in his or her poems ?

Ezra Pound’s poem “In a Station of the Metro” reads: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.” Which of the following statements best characterizes this poem ?

Ezra Pound’s “Cantos” may be called a modernist epic, though its form ultimately defies classification. Pound’s poem alludes to which of the following epic poems ?

Ezra Pound’s “Canto XIV” opens with the line “Io venni in luogo d’ogni luce muto” [I came to a place devoid of light]. This creates a connection between the Canto and which of the following works ?

Ezra Pound’s “Canto I” opens with the following lines: “And then went down to the ship,/Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and(…).” Which of the following statements best characterizes these lines and the poem as a whole ?

Complete the following sentence. Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” is a good example of High Modernism, because it_____________?

Complete the following sentence. Professor Hammer argues that Ezra Pound’s interest in fascism and his anti-Semitic views were likely an outcome of his______________?

Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written_______________?

Complete the following sentence. Matthew Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach” is illustrative of modernist poetry, because it________________?

According to W.E.B. Dubois in his Atlantic Monthly essay, “The Strivings of the Negro People,” what are some of the personal consequences for an African- American living in a racist society at the beginning of the 20th century ?

According to the literary critic, Paul Fussell, which of the following was a central trope of English poetry written during the Great War ?

According to Professor Hammer, which of the following characteristics did Langston Hughes share with modernist poets like William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Hart Crane, and Robert Frost ?

According to Professor Hammer, which of the following is the central question explored by T.S. Eliot in “The Waste Land” ?

According to Professor Hammer, Wallace Stevens’s understanding of the imagination has most in common with which of the following literary traditions ?

According to Langston Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (his answer to George Schuyler’s essay “Negro Art Hokum”), what is the “mountain” that stands in the way of “any true Negro art in America” ?