by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
Claude McKay was an early 20th
century poet who participated in the American experience known as the Harlem
Renaissance. As a poet, and as an author of novels and short stories, he
was able to express quite poignantly some of the struggles and humiliations
that he endured growing up and surviving as a black man in Jim Crow era
America.
McKay's poem, America, is presented here
as a reminder that we all view our country from a variety of personal
perspectives, some starkly different than others. While McKay endured
hardship and institutionalized racism, his view of America is ultimately
positive, or at least hopeful.
As our Independence Day approaches, all of us need
to realize that while we live in a great land, there is still much to be done
to provide hope and real opportunity to all who call this nation home.
America
by Claude McKay
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.
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