Read the poem “if we must die” by claude mckay. if we must die—let it not be like hogs hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, while round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, making their mock at our accursed lot. if we must die—oh, let us nobly die so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us though dead! oh, kinsmen! we must meet the common foe; though far outnumbered, let us still be brave, and for their thousand blows deal one death-blow! what though before us lies the open grave? like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall, dying, but—fighting back! what sentence best conveys the speaker’s message?

Read the following excerpt from "dark tower" by claude mckay before you choose your answer. "we shall not always plant while others reap the golden increment of bursting fruit, nor always countenance, abject and mute, that lesser men should hold their brothers cheap; not everlastingly while others sleep shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute, not always bend to some more subtle brute. we were not made eternally to weep. the night, whose sable breast relieves the stark, white stars, is no less lovely being dark; and there are buds that cannot bloom at all in light, but crumple, piteous, and fall. so in the dark we hid the heart that bleeds, and wait, and tend our agonizing needs." in context, the expression "the night, whose sable breast relieves the stark,/ white stars, is no less lovely being dark; " is best interpreted as a. the light of the stars overpowers the black of night b. the black of night overpowers the light of the stars c. black and white contribute equally to the beauty of the night sky d. black and white continuously compete for prominence in the night sky