Claude McKay was one of the most influential figures of Harlem Renaissance in America. He was also a prominent figure in the broader literary world in the 1920s. He is the author of books including ‘Songs of Jamaica,’ ‘Harlem Shadows,’ and ‘Selected Poems.’ Throughout his poetic career, he was dedicated to expressing the unique perspective of Black Americans.
‘To Winter’ by Claude McKay is a love letter to the cold winter months. The narrator of the poem laments the arrival of spring, as it means the winter has ended.
Stay, season of calm love and soulful snows!
There is a subtle sweetness in the sun,
The ripples on the stream’s breast gaily run,
The wind more boisterously by me blows,
‘If We Must Die’ by Claude McKay powerfully encourages the reader to stand up for and with the Black community. One should show strength in the face of discrimination, he says.
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.
‘America’ by Claude McKay balances ideas of loving and hating the United States. McKay explores the good parts of the country, the strength and vigor it contains as well as the bad.
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
‘Subway Wind’ by Claude McKay is a beautiful and tragic poem. In it, the speaker describes a trapped city wind longing for the freedom of the seaside.
Far down, down through the city’s great gaunt gut
The gray train rushing bears the weary wind;
In the packed cars the fans the crowd’s breath cut,
Leaving the sick and heavy air behind.
‘The Snow Fairy’ by Claude McKay intertwines snowfall with the warmth of a lover, crafting a dream-like narrative through vivid imagery.
Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,
Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,
Whirling fantastic in the misty air,
Contending fierce for space supremacy.
‘After the Winter’ by Claude McKay is a thoughtful and beautiful poem. Its speaker looks towards the future and considers the ideal life he’ll live with his partner.
Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
‘The Spanish Needle’ by Claude McKay is thoughtful and image-filled. The poet looks back on his speaker’s past and directs his words to a plant.
Lovely dainty Spanish needle
With your yellow flower and white,
Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,
Do you think of me to-night?
‘Harlem Shadows’ by Claude McKay memorably addresses the lives of Black sex workers in Harlem. The poet describes their experience while also acknowledging their strength.
I hear the halting footsteps of a lass
In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall
Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass
To bend and barter at desire's call.
‘The Tropics in New York’ by Claude McKay is a thoughtful poem about homesickness. It takes place in New York and includes a speaker’s longing for the elements of his home.
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
‘The Harlem Dancer’ by Claude McKay is a thoughtful poem about a dancer’s inner life. It speaks on the duality of what people see and what people experience.
Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes
And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;
Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes
Blown by black players upon a picnic day.
‘The White House’ by Claude McKay is a powerful poem about racial discrimination in the United States and the intense emotions it evokes.
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
‘The Easter Flower’ by Claude McKay illustrates the differences between the speaker’s pagan worship of nature and the more traditional theology surrounding the holiday.
Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly
My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,
Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily
Soft-scented in the air for yards around;
‘Enslaved’ channels deep racial anguish into a plea for liberation, vividly capturing the strife for equality and justice.
Oh when I think of my long-suffering race,
For weary centuries despised, oppressed,
Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place
In the great life line of the Christian West;
McKay’s ‘I Know My Soul’ explores self-reflection, the pursuit of inner peace, and the mysteries of our desires with rich imagery.
I plucked my soul out of its secret place,
And held it to the mirror of my eye,
To see it like a star against the sky,
A twitching body quivering in space,
‘Summer Morn in New Hampshire’ by Claude McKay describes how one speaker is unmoved by the brilliance of day as he is too consumed by his love for another.
All yesterday it poured, and all night long
I could not sleep; the rain unceasing beat
Upon the shingled roof like a weird song,
Upon the grass like running children’s feet.
FAQs about Claude McKayClaude McKay was a Jamaican-born poet and novelist. During his lifetime, he wrote numerous important and groundbreaking works of literature that exposed readers to the struggles of Black Americans in the 1920s.
Claude McKay moved to Harlem in order to be closer to the literary center of the United States during the 1920s. While there, he solidified his reputation as one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Claude McKay was born in Clarendon, Jamaica. After publishing his first book of poems, he moved to Harlem in New York City, New York. It is there that he wrote many of his most important literary works.
Claude McKay was one of the most influential figures of Harlem Renaissance in America. Some of his most famous poems includes ‘America,’ ‘Enslaved,’ ‘Subway Wind,’ ‘Harlem Shadows,’ ‘If We Must Die,’ ‘To Winter,’ and ‘The Harlem Dancer.’
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