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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: MCKAY, CLAUDE Matches Found: 89 Mckay, Claude Poet's Biography Alternate Author Name(s): Edwards, Eli 89 poems available by this author A MEMORY OF JUNE Poem Text First Line: When june comes dancing o'er the death of may Subject(s): Memory ABSENCE First Line: Your words dropped into my heart like pebbles into a pool AFRICA Poem Text First Line: The sun sought thy dim bed and brought forth light Last Line: Of all the mighty nations of the sun. Subject(s): Africa AFTER THE WINTER Poem Text First Line: Some day, when trees have shed their leaves Last Line: And ferns that never fade. Subject(s): Nature AMERICA Poem Text First Line: Although she feeds me bread of bitterness Last Line: Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand. Subject(s): African Americans; Freedom; United States; Negroes; American Blacks; Liberty; America BAPTISM Poem Text First Line: Into the furnace let me go alone Last Line: A stronger soul within a finer frame. Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks BARRIER First Line: I must not gaze at them although Last Line: You're fair and I am dark BIRDS OF PREY Poem Text First Line: Their shadow dims the sunshine of our day Subject(s): Birds BIRDS OF PREY First Line: Their shadow dims the sunshine of our day Last Line: And stuff our gory hearts into their maws CASTAWAYS First Line: The vivid grass with visible delight Last Line: I have the strength to bear by CITIES First Line: Oh cities are a fever in my blood COTCH DONKEY First Line: Ko how de jackass Last Line: Wuk you wid sore back CUDJOE FRESH FROM DE LECTURE First Line: Top one minute, cous' jarge, an' sit do'n 'pon de grass DAWN IN NEW YORK Poem Text First Line: The dawn! The dawn! The crimson-tinted, comes Subject(s): Americans; United States; America DAWN IN NEW YORK First Line: The dawn! The dawn! The crimson-tinted, comes Last Line: And I go darkly-rebel to my work Subject(s): Americans; United States DECEMBER. 1919 Poem Text First Line: Last night I heard your voice, mother Subject(s): Grief; Mothers; Sorrow; Sadness DESOLATE First Line: My spirit is a pestilential city Variant Title(s): Desolate Cit EASTER FLOWER First Line: Far from this foreign easter damp and chilly ENSLAVED Poem Text First Line: Oh when I think of my long-suffering race Last Line: To liberate my people from its yoke! Subject(s): African Americans - History; Slavery; Black Heritage; Serfs EXHORTATION: SUMMER, 1919 First Line: Through the pregnant universe rumbles life's terrific thunder FLAME-HEART Poem Text First Line: So much have I forgotten in ten years Last Line: Beneath the poinsettia's red in warm december. Subject(s): Memory FLIRTATION First Line: Upon thy purple mat thy body bare FUTILITY Poem Text First Line: Oh, I have tried to laugh the pain away Subject(s): Love; Grief; Sorrow; Sadness HARLEM SHADOWS Poem Text First Line: I hear the halting footsteps of a lass Last Line: In harlem wandering from street to street. Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Harlem (new York City); Poverty; Prostitution; Harlots; Whores; Brothels HERITAGE Poem Text First Line: Now the dead past seems vividly alive Last Line: The best of me is but the least of you. HOME THOUGHTS First Line: O something just now must be happening there! HOMING SWALLOWS First Line: Swift swallows sailing from the spanish main Last Line: The golden powder clustered round the seed I KNOW MY SOUL Poem Text First Line: I plucked my soul out of its secret place, Subject(s): Soul; Self I SHALL RETURN Poem Text First Line: I shall return again; I shall return Subject(s): Homecoming I SHALL RETURN First Line: I shall return again. I shall return Last Line: To ease my mind of long, long years of pain IF WE MUST DIE Poem Text First Line: If we must die, let it not be like hogs Last Line: Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! Subject(s): African Americans; Courage; Death; Honor; Social Protest; World War I; Negroes; American Blacks; Valor; Bravery; Dead, The; First World War IN BONDAGE Poem Text First Line: I would be wandering in distant fields Subject(s): Slavery; Serfs IN BONDAGE First Line: I would be wandering in distant fields Last Line: But I am bound with you in your mean graves, %o black men, simple slaves of ruthless slaves INVOCATION Poem Text First Line: Ancestral spirit, hidden from my sight Last Line: The worthy singer of my world and race. JASMINES First Line: Your scent is in the room Last Line: Luxuriant, clustered round your cottage door! JOY IN THE WOODS Poem Text First Line: There is joy in the woods just now Subject(s): Forests; Slavery; Woods; Serfs KILLIN' NANNY First Line: Two little pickny is watchin' LA PALOMA IN LONDON Poem Text First Line: About soho we went before the light Last Line: I loved you, cuban girl, fond sweet diory. LIKE A STRONG TREE First Line: Like a strong tree that in the virgin earth Last Line: Like a strong tree against a thousand storms LOOK WITHIN Poem Text First Line: Lord, let me not be silent while we fight Last Line: While worm-infested, rotten through within! Subject(s): Fascism & Fascists; Racism; United States; World War Ii; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry; America; Second World War MULATTO Poem Text First Line: Because I am the white man's son - his own Last Line: To gain the utmost freedom that is life. Subject(s): Mulattos; Racism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry MY HOUSE First Line: For this peculiar tint that paints my house MY MOTHER (1) Poem Text First Line: The dawn departs, the morning is begun Last Line: Beneath its breast my mother lies asleep. Subject(s): Mothers MY MOTHER (2) Poem Text First Line: Reg wished me to go with him to the field Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Mothers MY MOTHER (2) First Line: Reg wished me to go with him to the field Last Line: Could weep just once again Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies; Mothers NEGRO SPIRITUAL First Line: They've taken thee out of the simple soil Last Line: Drowning thy beauty in orchestral thunders ON A PRIMITIVE CANOE Poem Text First Line: Here, passing lonely down this quiet lane ON BROADWAY Poem Text First Line: About me young careless feet Subject(s): Broadway, New York City ON BROADWAY First Line: About me young and careless feet Last Line: My heart, my heart, is lonely ON THE ROAD Poem Text First Line: Roar of the rushing train fearfully rocking, Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains ONE YEAR AFTER: 1 Poem Text First Line: Not once in all our days of poignant love Subject(s): Race Awareness; Love - Loss Of ONE YEAR AFTER: 2 Poem Text First Line: Adventure-seasoned and storm-buffeted Subject(s): Love - Loss Of OUTCAST Poem Text First Line: For the dim regions whence my fathers came Last Line: Under the white man's menace, out of time. Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks PAGAN ISMS First Line: Around me roar and crash the pagan isms Last Line: Can violate or circumvent his plan POETRY Poem Text First Line: Sometimes I tremble like a storm-swept flower Subject(s): Fear' Poetry & Poets POETRY First Line: Sometimes I tremble like a storm-swept flower Last Line: Will perish on the altar-stone of art ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed Subject(s): Love RUSSIAN CATHEDRAL Poem Text First Line: Bow down my soul in worship very low Subject(s): Worship SONG OF THE MOON Poem Text First Line: The moonlight breaks upon the city's domes Last Line: To drink your wine mixed with sweet drafts of dews. Subject(s): Moon SPRING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE Poem Text First Line: Too green the springing april grass Last Line: Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping. ST. ISAAC'S CHURCH, PETROGRAD Poem Text First Line: Bow down my soul in worship very low Last Line: Of man's divinity alive in stone. Variant Title(s): Russian Cathedral Subject(s): Churches; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Cathedrals; Leningrad; Petrograd SUBWAY WIND Poem Text First Line: Far down, down through the city's great, gaunt gut Last Line: And the trades float above them fresh and free. Subject(s): Subways SUBWAY WIND First Line: Far down, down THE BARRIER Poem Text First Line: I must not gaze at them although Subject(s): Race Awareness; Love - Loss Of THE CASTAWAYS Poem Text First Line: The vivid grass with visible delight Subject(s): Nature; Homeless THE CITY'S LOVE Poem Text First Line: For one brief golden moment rare like wine Subject(s): City & Town Life THE HARLEM DANCER Poem Text First Line: Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes Last Line: I knew her self was not in that strange place. Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Harlem (new York City) THE LITTLE PEOPLES Poem Text First Line: The little peoples of the troubled earth Last Line: The white world's burden must forever bear! Subject(s): World War I; First World War THE LYNCHING Poem Text First Line: His spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven Last Line: Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee. Subject(s): Lynching THE NEGRO DANCERS Poem Text First Line: Lit with cheap colored lights a basement den Last Line: All other things, however great, come after. Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers THE NEGRO'S TRAGEDY Poem Text First Line: It is the negro's tragedy I feel Last Line: The negro laughs and prays to god for light! Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks THE NIGHT FIRE Poem Text First Line: No engines shrieking rescue storm the night Subject(s): Fire THE SNOW FAIRY Poem Text First Line: Throughout the afternoon I watched them there, Subject(s): Snow THE TIRED WORKER Poem Text First Line: O whisper, o my soul! The afternoon Subject(s): City & Town Life THE TROPICS IN NEW YORK Poem Text Recitation First Line: Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root Last Line: I turned aside and bowed my head and wept. Subject(s): Fruit; Nature; New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple THE WHITE CITY Poem Text First Line: I will not toy with it nor bend an inch Last Line: Are sweet like wanton loves because I hate. Subject(s): African Americans; Hate; Men; Racism; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry THE WHITE HOUSE Poem Text First Line: Your door is shut against my tightened face Last Line: Against the potent poison of your hate. Subject(s): African Americans; Hate; Negroes; American Blacks THIRST Poem Text First Line: My spirit wails for water, water now! Subject(s): Thirst THROUGH AGONY: 1 Poem Text First Line: All night, through the eternity of night, Subject(s): Love - Complaints; Grief; Sorrow; Sadness THROUGH AGONY: 2 Poem Text First Line: I do not fear to face the fact and say Subject(s): Love - Loss Of; Grief; Sorrow; Sadness TIGER Poem Text First Line: The white man is a tiger at my throat Last Line: The tiger in his strength his thirst must slake! Subject(s): Racism; United States; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry; America TO O.A.E. Poem Text First Line: Your voice is the color of a robin's breast Subject(s): Voices; Love TO O.E.A. Poem Text First Line: Your voice is the color of a robin's breast Last Line: Forever, life-long. TO THE WHITE FIENDS Poem Text First Line: Think you I am not fiend and savage too? Last Line: To show thy little lamp: go forth, go forth! Subject(s): African Americans; Racism; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry TO WINTER Poem Text First Line: Stay, season of calm love and soulful snows! Subject(s): Winter TRUTH First Line: Lord, shall I find it in thy holy church Last Line: Upon my knees, oh lord, for truth I plead WILD GOAT First Line: O you would clothe me in silken frocks WILD MAY Poem Text First Line: Aleta mentions in her tender letters Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives WILD MAY First Line: Aleta mentions in her tender letters |
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