Claude McKay
Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKaywas a Jamaican-American writer and poet, who was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote four novels: Home to Harlem, a best-seller that won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo, Banana Bottom, and in 1941 a manuscript called Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem that has not yet been published. McKay also authored collections of poetry, a collection of short...
NationalityJamaican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth15 September 1889
CityClarendon Parish, Jamaica
CountryJamaica
Deep in the secret chambers of my heart I muse my life-long hate, and without flinch I bear it nobly as I live my part.
I have forgotten much, but still remember The poinsiana's red, blood-red in warm December.
Adventure-seasoned and storm-buffeted, I shun all signs of anchorage, because The zest of life exceeds the bound of laws.
Upon the clothes behind the tenement, That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines, Linking each flat, but to each indifferent, Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines.
If we must die, O let us nobly die.
Nations, like plants and human beings, grow. And if the development is thwarted they are dwarfed and overshadowed.
The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night.
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways, I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
It's when you are down that you learn about your faults.
Idealism is like a castle in the air if it is not based on a solid foundation of social and political realism.
We are like trees. We wear all colors naturally.
If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, If we must die, O let us nobly die.
I know the dark delight of being strange, The penalty of difference in the crowd, The loneliness of wisdom among fools...
Human dignity is more precious than prestige....