Selected Poems

Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay (18891948) came to the U.S. in 1912 and became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. This inexpensive edition includes a representative sample of his Jamaican dialect verse, but concentrates on poems fromHarlem Shadows(1922) and uncollected verse. Edited and with an introduction by Joan R. Sherman.

Introduction
Works by Claude McKay
 
From Songs of Jamaica
  Quashie to Buccra
  Hard Times
  Cudjoe Fresh from de Lecture
  A Midnight Woman to the Bobby
  My Native Land, My Home
  My Mountain Home
  Jubba
 
From Constab Ballads
  Preface
  Bennie's Departure
  Consolation
  A Recruit on the Copy
  The Apple-Woman's Complaint
  The Heart of a Constab
  Sukee River
 
Uncollected Poems
  Invocation (Seven Arts, October 1917)
  To the White Fiends (Pearson's Magazine, September 1918)
  The Dominant White (Liberator, April 1919)
  A Capitalist at Dinner (Liberator, July 1919)
  The Negro Dancers (Liberator, July 1919)
  The Little Peoples (Liberator, July 1919)
  To "Holy" Russia (Workers' Dreadnought, February 1920)
  Song of the New Soldier and Worker (Workers' Dreadnought, April 1920)
  Battle (Worker's Dreadnought, April 1920)
  Negro Spiritual (Liberator, May 1922)
  The White House (Liberator, May 1922)
 
From Harlem Shadows
  America (Liberator, December, 1921)
  The Tropics in New York (Liberator, May 1920)
  Flame-Heart
  Home Thoughts
  On Broadway (Cambridge Magazine, Summer 1920)
  The Barrier (Cambridge Magazine, Summer 1920)
  North and South (Cambridge Magazine, Summer 1920)
  After the Winter (Liberator, Juy 1919)
  Harlem Shadows (Pearson's Magazine, September 1918)
  The White City (Liberator, October, 1921)
  My Mother (Liberator, March 1920)
  In Bondage (Liberator, August 1921)
  Heritage
  When I Have Passed Away
  Enslaved (Liberator, July 1921)
  Winter in the Country (Cambridge Magazine, Summer 1920)
  Spring in New Hampshire (Liberator, August 1919)
  On the Road, (Liberator, March 1922)  The Harlem Dancer (Seven Arts, October 1917)
  The Tired Worker (Liberator, August 1919)
  Outcast
  I Know My Soul
  Birds of Prey (Workers' Dreadnought, October 1920)
  Exhortation: Summer, 1919
  Baptism (Liberator, October 1921)
  If We Must Die (Liberator, July 1919)
  Subway Wind (Liberator, August 1921)
  Poetry
  A Prayer
  When Dawn Comes to the City (Cambridge Magazine, Summer 1920)
  O Word I Love to Sing
  Summer Morn in New Hampshire (Worker's Dreadnought, July 1920)
  Romance
  Flower of Love
  A Memory of June (Cambridge Magazine, Summer 1920)
  One Year After
  Jasmines (Liberator, August 1921)
  Memorial
  Thirst (Liberator, December 1921)