America by Claude McKay is written in a sonnet form, measuring 14 lines with an ABABABABABABCC rhyme scheme. Claude McKay (1973). 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. Claude McKay, "America" from Liberator (December 1921). In fact, his poetry collection Harlem Shadows (1922) is often cited as the beginning of the movement. Source: Liberator (The Library of America, 1921) More About this Poem. Claude McKay had immigrated to America from Jamaica, and the poem reflects his feelings/thoughts on America as an immigrant. Claude McKay's Early Poetry (1911-1922): A Digital Collection Main Menu Introduction: About this Site Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University Constab Ballads (1912) -- Digital Edition Claude McKay's "Constab Ballads" Songs of Jamaica (1912): Digital Edition Book of poetry by Claude McKay. Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me strength erect against her hate, Her bigness sweeps “America” meets the standard of an original sonnet form. "America" by Claude McKay - E-Verse RadioE-Verse Radio Claude McKay, a Jamaican born writer and poet, was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. McKay paved a path of his own as a modernist in two ways. Claude McKay was a Jamaican writer who moved to the United States in 1912.

America (Claude McKay poem) Literary Elements Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View The speaker is an unidentified "youth"—implied to be well-educated, male, and a cultural outsider—who has a complex and ambivalent relationship to America. America (Claude McKay poem) study guide contains a biography of Claude McKay, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

McKay's poem is a 14 line "Shakespearean" sonnet about America —though we only know that from the title, as McKay never references America in the poem itself. Courtesy of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay, Schombourg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tildeen Foundations. Educated by his older brother, McKay published his first work entitled Songs of Jamaica in 1912, the same year he left his homeland for the United States. In 1921, he wrote this poem expressing his feelings about America. Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889. Upon the 8th line, the poem has a Volta, with a …

Preface by Walter Jekyll. “The passion of Claude McKay: selected poetry and prose, 1912-1948”, Schocken He was a prominent and influential voice in the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay, born Festus Claudius McKay in Sunny Ville, Jamaica in 1889, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s.