Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Adolescence
There was a time when in late afternoonThe four-o'clocks would fold up at day's closePink-white in prayer, and 'neath the floating moonI lay with..
© Claude McKay
When I Have Passed Away
When I have passed away and am forgotten,And no one living can recall my face,When under alien sod my bones lie rottenWith not a tree or stone to..
© Claude McKay
The Tropics In New York
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,Fit for the highest prize at..
© Claude McKay
Alfonso, Dressing To Wait At Table
Alfonso is a handsome bronze-hued ladOf subtly-changing and surprising parts;His moods are storms that frighten and make glad,His eyes were made to..
© Claude McKay
French Leave
No servile little fear shall daunt my willThis morning. I have courage steeled to sayI will be lazy, conqueringly still,I will not lose the hours in..
© Claude McKay
Outcast
For the dim regions whence my fathers cameMy spirit, bondaged by the body, longs.Words felt, but never heard, my lips would frame;My soul would sing..
© Claude McKay
Flirtation
UPON thy purple mat thy body bareIs fine and limber like a tender tree.The motion of thy supple form is rare,Like a lithe panther lolling..
© Claude McKay
Baptism
Into the furnace let me go alone;Stay you without in terror of the heat.I will go naked in--for thus ''tis sweet--Into the weird depths of the..
© Claude McKay
A Prayer
'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.Mine eyes are open but they..
© Claude McKay
My Mother
IReg wished me to go with him to the field,I paused because I did not want to go;But in her quiet way she made me yieldReluctantly, for she was..
© Claude McKay
The Harlem Dancer
Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutesAnd watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;Her voice was like the sound of blended flutesBlown..
© Claude McKay
The Lynching
His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.His father, by the cruelest way of pain,Had bidden him to his bosom once again;The awful sin remained..
© Claude McKay
The Spanish Needle
Lovely dainty Spanish needleWith your yellow flower and white,Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,Do you think of me to-night?Shadowed by the spreading..
© Claude McKay
December, 1919
Last night I heard your voice, mother,The words you sang to meWhen I, a little barefoot boy,Knelt down against your knee.And tears gushed from my..
© Claude McKay
Absence
Your words dropped into my heart like pebbles into a pool,Rippling around my breast and leaving it melting cool.Your kisses fell sharp on my flesh..
© Claude McKay
Exhortation: Summer 1919
Through the pregnant universe rumbles life's terrific thunder,And Earth's bowels quake with terror; strange and terrible storms..
© Claude McKay
The City's Love
For one brief golden moment rare like wine,The gracious city swept across the line;Oblivious of the color of my skin,Forgetting that I was an alien..
© Claude McKay
Song Of The Moon
The moonlight breaks upon the city's domes,And falls along cemented steel and stone,Upon the grayness of a million homes,Lugubrious in unchanging..
© Claude McKay
The Snow Fairy
IThroughout the afternoon I watched them there,Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,Whirling fantastic in the misty air,Contending fierce for..
© Claude McKay
Flower Of Love
The perfume of your body dulls my sense.I want nor wine nor weed; your breath aloneSuffices. In this moment rare and tenseI worship at your breast...
© Claude McKay
Harlem Shadows
I hear the halting footsteps of a lassIn Negro Harlem when the night lets fallIts veil. I see the shapes of girls who passTo bend and barter at..
© Claude McKay
Dawn In New York
The Dawn! The Dawn! The crimson-tinted, comesOut of the low still skies, over the hills,Manhattan's roofs and spires and cheerless domes!The Dawn! My..
© Claude McKay
After The Winter
Some day, when trees have shed their leavesAnd against the morning's whiteThe shivering birds beneath the eavesHave sheltered for the night,We'll..
© Claude McKay
A Red Flower
Your lips are like a southern lily red,Wet with the soft rain-kisses of the night,In which the brown bee buries deep its head,When still the dawn's a..
© Claude McKay
Romance
To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,Scented and warm against my beating breast;To whisper soft and quivering your name,And drink the..
© Claude McKay