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

Claude McKay was an important writer and poet of the Harlem Renaissance. In the excerpt we are analyzing here, McKay is expressing that both, black and white, are beautiful. He talks of the night being black and, for that reason, relieving the white stars. Stars are often used in literature as symbols for beauty and vivaciousness. Still, McKay says, "the night, whose sable breast relieves the stark,/ white stars, is no less lovely being dark." The night itself is beautiful, lovely as the stars are lovely, even in its blackness. Black and white have the same power, the same potential for beauty. The night sky is beautiful not just because of the white of the stars, but also because of the black of the night itself.