Travel, Migration, and Great Migration poetry
One category might be connected to poets who were themselves migrants, like Claude McKay (who migrated from Jamaica to the U.S.).
Others experienced domestic migration, with many Black poets of this period moving from the American South to northern cities like New York and Chicago.
Others were travelers -- visiting Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Langston Hughes, for example, wrote memorably of his visit to West Africa in the early 1920s. James Weldon Johnson spent time in Latin America between 1906 and 1913, while working as a U.S. Consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Others traveled as tourists.
Finally, there are a few poems here connected with imaginations of the African 'homeland', sometimes from the point of view of UNIA members who were envisioning migrating back to Africa at some point.
Contents of this tag:
- Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Wings of Oppression" (Full Text) (1921)
- Langston Hughes, "A Farewell" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Port Town" (1926)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Hegira" (1917)
- Langston Hughes, "Natcha" (1926)
- Lucian B. Watkins, "Voices of Solitude" (Full Text) (1903/1907)
- H. Percival Welsh, "A Call to Race Manhood" (1921)
- Langston Hughes, "Seascape" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Blues Fantasy" (1926)
- Mexican Market Woman by Langston Hughes
- The South by Langston Hughes
- Water-Front Streets by Langston Hughes
- Long Trip by Langston Hughes
- Effie Lee Newsome, "Exodus" (1925)
- George Marion McClellan, "Poems" (1895)
- Claude McKay, "Homing Swallows" (1922)
- Claude McKay, "The Tropics in New York" (1922)
- Langston Hughes, "To a Negro Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret" (1925)
- Young Sailor by Langston Hughes
- Soledad: A Cuban Portrait by Langston Hughes
- Claude McKay, "After the Winter" (1922)
- To the Dark Mercedes of 'El Palacio de Amor' by Langston Hughes
- Claude McKay, "Home Thoughts" (1922)
- Thomas H. Brooks, "The U.N.I.A." (1921)
- Countee Cullen, "At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem" (1927)
- Winter in the Country by Claude McKay
- Joseph Hazel Donaldson, "To Minnie" (1921)
- To One Coming North by Claude McKay
- Countee Cullen, "To Endymion" (1927)
- To Winter by Claude McKay
- Langston Hughes, "In a Mexican City" (1921)
- On the Road by Claude McKay
- Flame-Heart by Claude McKay
- Effie Lee Newsome, "Negro Street Serenade (In the South)" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, Biographical Note, "Caroling Dusk" (1927)
- Langston Hughes, "Ruby Brown" (1926)
- Arna Bontemps, "Close Your Eyes!" (1927)
- Arna Bontemps, "Here Is the Sea" (1926)
- The Spanish Needle by Claude McKay
- James Weldon Johnson, "Down By The Carib Sea" (1917)
- Lucy Ariel Williams, "Northboun'" (1926)
- Frances E.W. Harper, "The Present Age" (1896)
- In Bondage by Claude McKay
- T. Thomas Fortune, "The Clime of My Birth" (1905)
- Helene Johnson, "Fulfillment" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Fine Clothes to the Jew" (1927) (Full Text)
- I Shall Return by Claude McKay
- Hephzibah E. Willis, "To the Black Star Line" (1921)
- Countee Cullen, "On the Mediterranean Sea" (1927)
- On a Primitive Canoe by Claude McKay