Tag Archives: Claude McKay

“America” by Claude McKay [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
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.
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
 Giving me strength erect against her hate,
 Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
 Yet, as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
 Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
 Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
 And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand,
 Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

BOOKS: “Harlem Shadows” by Claude McKay

Posted on by
Reply
Harlem Shadows (AmazonClassics Edition)Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg

This 1922 poetry collection is wide-ranging and beautifully composed. As the title hints, this is a product of that great literary and artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The seventy-plus poems include sonnets and various other forms of poems, mostly lyric and rarely more than a couple pages in length. Besides being varied in form, they poems are also diverse of tone — from frank invectives on race to sweet love poems. They take New York as their home and tap into the verve of the day. The collection includes many of McKay’s best-known poems including: “If We Must Die,” “America,” and “Harlem Shadows.” Though bucolic beauties such as “Spring in New Hampshire” and “The Snow-Fairy” are not to be skipped over.

I enjoyed these poems and found them powerful and lyrical.

View all my reviews

“Birds of Prey” by Claude McKay [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
2 
Their shadow dims the sunshine of our day,
 As they go lumbering across the sky,
 Squawking in joy of feeling safe on high,
 Beating their heavy wings of owlish gray.
  They scare the singing birds of earth away
  As, greed-impelled, they circle threateningly,
  Watching the toilers with malignant eye,
  From their exclusive haven -- birds of prey.
 They swoop down for the spoil in certain might,
 And fasten in our bleeding flesh their claws.
  They beat us to surrender weak with fright,
  And tugging and tearing without let or pause,
  They flap their hideous wings in grim delight,
  And stuff our gory hearts into their maws.

BOOKS: Echo & Critique by Florian Gargaillo

Posted on by
Reply
Echo and Critique: Poetry and the Clichés of Public SpeechEcho and Critique: Poetry and the Clichés of Public Speech by Florian Gargaillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Out Now (May 10, 2023)

This book examines seven poets’ attempts to halt the proliferation of clichés, euphemisms, doublespeak, etc., words and phrases that not only corrupt the language but are often used to disguise bad behavior or to camouflage dismaying truths. It focuses on a technique, echo and critique, in which the poet employs one or more of these disconcerting words or phrases (or clever variants of them,) but does so in a way that reveals the chicanery within them.

The poets whose work is discussed are: Auden, Randall Jarrell, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Robert Lowell, Josephine Miles, and Seamus Heaney. These poets go head-to-head with cliché and doublespeak in the form of bureaucratese, propaganda, political speak, and business talk — with particular emphasis on war, race, and politics.

The book makes some interesting points. There are more readable discussions of the subject of corruption and manipulation of the English language, though none that I’m aware of on this particular approach to combating it. This volume is largely aimed at scholars, and not so much the popular readers. That said, I found it well worth reading.

View all my reviews