Claude McKay

Claude McKay (1889-1948)

About the Author

Click the link to read the bio info about the author and share with the class your knowledge of him.

Aim: How did Claude McKay use poetic language to depict the subject in his poem?

Do Now: In your notebook, jot down some techniques you use in reading and analyzing poetry. We'll share in class.

Procedure:

Read aloud the poem twice and do the following-
- Copy the new vocabulary words in your notebook and look them up using the online dictionary.
- Write one to two sentences to describe the main idea of the poem.
- Guess what feelings or mood is conveyed in the poem.
- Identify one example of literary techniques used in the poem.
Share our notes in class. Take notes during the discussion.

Claude McKay

THE TROPICS IN NEW YORK

1     Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,
2         Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
3     And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
4         Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,

5     Set in the window, bringing memories
6         Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
7     And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
8         In benediction over nun-like hills.

9     My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;
10       A wave of longing through my body swept,
11   And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
12       I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

Link to McKay's Poetry

The Harlem Dancer

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.
She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,
The light gauze hanging loose about her form;
To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm
Grown lovelier for passing through a storm.
Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls
Luxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,
The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,
Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;
But looking at her falsely-smiling face,
I knew her self was not in that strange place.

3. What subjects are described in his poems? How did he describe them?

4. After reading the poems, discuss the questions:

If you need to ask your peer questions about the poem either to help you understand or find out his/her understanding of the poem, what questions would you ask?
What more do you want to know beyond the poem as the cause-of-effect of reading the poem?
If the author was available to answer your questions, what would you ask him/her?
Do you know any other literature that is related to the same topic?
How would you like to respond to the poem? Write a poem of your own? Write a letter the poet? Create a story to express your responses?

Homework

Write a complete paragraph of your analysis of the poem " The Tropics in New York".
Use the same techniques we discussed in class to read "The Harlem Dancer".
Identify one thing from any of the two poems and develop your creative work based on that.
Use the Link to McKay's Poetry to find out one more poem you would like your classmates to read and explain why.

Enrichment:

Read more poems by Claude McKay

After the Winter

Claude McKay (1890–1948)


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,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,	5
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree,	10
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee.
And we will build a lonely nest
Beside an open glade,
And there forever will we rest,	15
O love—O nut-brown maid!

A MEMORY OF JUNE

by: Claude McKay (1890-1948)

HEN June comes dancing o'er the death of May,
With scarlet roses tinting her green breast,
And mating thrushes ushering in her day,
And Earth on tiptoe for her golden guest,

I always see the evening when we met--
The first of June baptized in tender rain--
And walked home through the wide streets, gleaming wet,
Arms locked, our warm flesh pulsing with love's pain.

I always see the cheerful little room,
And in the corner, fresh and white, the bed,
Sweet scented with a delicate perfume,
Wherein for one night only we were wed;

Where in the starlit stillness we lay mute,
And heard the whispering showers all night long,
And your brown burning body was a lute
Whereon my passion played his fevered song.

When June comes dancing o'er the death of May,
With scarlet roses staining her fair feet,
My soul takes leave of me to sing all day
A love so fugitive and so complete.

"A Memory of June" is reprinted from Harlem Shadows. Claude McKay. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922.