Harlem Shadows: Poems

by Claude McKay, Jericho Brown (Introduction)

Overview

A harbinger of the Harlem Renaissance first published in 1922, this collection of poignant, lyrical poems explores Claude McKay’s yearning for his Jamaican homeland and the bitter plight of Black and African Caribbean people in America—now with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Jericho Brown. 

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Vulture

With pure heart, passion, and honesty, Claude McKay offers an acute reflection on the complex nature of racial identity in the Caribbean diaspora, encompassing issues such as nationalism, freedom of expression, class, gender, and sex. The collection’s eponymous poem, “Harlem Shadows,” portrays the struggle of sex workers in 1920s Harlem. In “If We Must Die,” McKay calls for justice and retribution for Black people in the face of racist abuse. 

Juxtaposing the cacophony of New York City with the serene beauty of Jamaica, McKay urges us to reckon with the oppression that plagues a “long-suffering race,” who he argues has no home in a white man’s world. Poems of Blackness, queerness, desire, performance, and love are infused with a radical message of resistance in this sonorous cry for universal human rights. Simultaneously a love letter to the spirit of New York City and an indictment of its harsh cruelty, Harlem Shadows is a stunning collection that remains all too relevant one hundred years after its original publication.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593242681
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/11/2022
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	652,471
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Claude McKay (1889–1948) was a Jamaican-born writer, poet, and political activist. His first novel, Home to Harlem, a bestseller that won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, was published in 1928. He wrote seven novels, two memoirs, short stories, poetry, and an essay collection entitled Harlem: Negro Metropolis. Harlem Shadows was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance.

Read an Excerpt

Harlem Shadows

I hear the halting footsteps of a lass
        In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall
Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass
        To bend and barter at desire’s call.
Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet
Go prowling through the night from street to street!
 
Through the long night until the silver break
        Of day the little gray feet know no rest;
Through the lone night until the last snow-flake
        Has dropped from heaven upon the earth’s white breast,
The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet
Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street.
 
Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way
        Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace,
Has pushed the timid little feet of clay,
        The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!
Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet
In Harlem wandering from street to street.


Enslaved

Oh when I think of my long-suffering race,
For weary centuries despised, oppressed,
Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place
In the great life line of the Christian West;
And in the Black Land disinherited,
Robbed in the ancient country of its birth, 
My heart grows sick with hate, becomes as lead,
For this my race that has no home on earth.
Then from the dark depths of my soul I cry
To the avenging angel to consume
The white man's world of wonders utterly:
Let it be swallowed up in earth's vast womb,
Or upward roll as sacrificial smoke
To liberate my people from its yoke!


The Barrier

I must not gaze at them although
Your eyes are dawning day;
     I must not watch you as you go
You sun-illuminated way;
     I hear but I must never heed
The fascinating note,
     Which, fluting like a river reed,
Comes from your trembling throat;
     I must not see upon your face
Love's softly glowing spark;
     For there's the barrier of race,
You're fair and I am dark.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Author's Word xiii

The Easter Flower 3

To One Coming North 4

America 5

Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table 6

The Tropics in New York 7

Flame-Heart 8

Home Thoughts 10

On Broadway 11

The Barrier 12

Adolescence 13

Homing Swallows 14

The City's Love 15

North and South 16

Wild May 17

The Plateau 18

After the Winter 19

The Wild Goat 20

Harlem Shadows 21

The White City 22

The Spanish Needle 23

My Mother 25

In Bondage 27

December, 1919 28

Heritage 29

When I Have Passed Away 30

Enslaved 31

I Shall Return 32

Morning Joy 33

Africa 34

On a Primitive Canoe 35

Winter in the Country 36

To Winter 38

Spring in New Hampshire 39

On the Road 40

The Harlem Dancer 41

Dawn in New York 42

The Tired Worker 43

Outcast 44

I Know My Soul 45

Birds of Prey 46

The Castaways 47

Exhortation: Summer, 1919 48

The Lynching 50

Baptism 51

If We Must Die 52

Subway Wind 53

The Night Fire 54

Poetry 55

To a Poet 56

A Prayer 57

When Dawn Comes to the City 58

O Word I Love to Sing 60

Absence 61

Summer Morn in New Hampshire 62

Rest in Peace 63

A Red Flower 64

Courage 65

To O. E. A. 66

Romance 67

Flower of Love 68

The Snow Fairy 69

La Paloma in London 71

A Memory of June 72

Flirtation 73

Tormented 74

Polarity 75

One Year After 76

French Leave 78

Jasmines 79

Commemoration 80

Memorial 81

Thirst 83

Futility 84

Through Agony 85