THE CORRECT ANSWER IS (D).THIS QUESTION ASKS YOU TO REASONABOUT, A...

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The correct answer is (D).

This question asks you to reason

about, as well as to understand, what you have read. Logically if

Frederick Douglass, choice (A), were the speaker, he would not

begin the poem with a noun of direct address. You can also

eliminate choices (B) and (E) because there is no indication in

the poem that the speaker is a historian or a former slave,

although the latter is not impossible. You are left with two

responses—the poet, choice (C), and a despairing African

American, choice (D). Choice (D) is the broader of the two

choices; it encompasses the poet who is African American and

also despairing of the current circumstances of African Ameri-

cans in the early part of the twentieth century.

Test-Taking Strategy