Question

in Lift Every Voice and Sing, which of the following most closely identifies the focus of the speaker? Question 20 options: a) The speaker is focused on a group of people and their history. b) The speaker is focused on himself and a particular event. c) The speaker is focused on his immediate family at a gathering. d) The speaker is focused on a close friend and a shared experience.

Answer 1

The right answer is the a) The speaker is focused on a group of people and their history. The speaker in this poem by James Weldon Johnson is focused on the historical struggle that African Americans have had to endure in order to live and thrive in their own native land ("... Stony the road we trod / Bitter the chastening rod / Felt in the days when hope unborn had died..."). The poem, nevertheless, is celebratory and optimistic ("... Out from the gloomy past / Till now we stand at last / Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast..."), and it seeks to raise the spirits and to encourage its audience to remain hopeful and faithful to God.  

Answer 2

a) The speaker is focused on a group of people and their history. This is the correct option.

James Weldon Johnson created the song to be sung in front of Lincoln during one of his birthdays ( 1900). Then,  the song  became part of an association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and since then it has been considered as a sort of Black National Anthem.

These options are not right:

b) The speaker is focused on himself and a particular event. ( James W. Johnson is focused on a social event. He is part of that social problem: racism).

c) The speaker is focused on his immediate family at a gathering.  . ( The song was sung in one of Lincoln's birthdays. The song is not focused on the speaker's family).

d) The speaker is focused on a close friend and a shared experience ( The speaker is concerned with a social issue: racism in the U.S).