African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Travel, Migration, and Great Migration poetry

This tag is associated with poetry dealing with travel and migration of various kinds. 

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:

  1. Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921)
  2. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Wings of Oppression" (Full Text) (1921)
  3. Langston Hughes, "A Farewell" (1925)
  4. Langston Hughes, "Port Town" (1926)
  5. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Hegira" (1917)
  6. Langston Hughes, "Natcha" (1926)
  7. Lucian B. Watkins, "Voices of Solitude" (Full Text) (1903/1907)
  8. H. Percival Welsh, "A Call to Race Manhood" (1921)
  9. Langston Hughes, "Seascape" (1926)
  10. Langston Hughes, "Blues Fantasy" (1926)
  11. Mexican Market Woman by Langston Hughes
  12. The South by Langston Hughes
  13. Water-Front Streets by Langston Hughes
  14. Long Trip by Langston Hughes
  15. Effie Lee Newsome, "Exodus" (1925)
  16. George Marion McClellan, "Poems" (1895)
  17. Claude McKay, "Homing Swallows" (1922)
  18. Claude McKay, "The Tropics in New York" (1922)
  19. Langston Hughes, "To a Negro Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret" (1925)
  20. Young Sailor by Langston Hughes
  21. Soledad: A Cuban Portrait by Langston Hughes
  22. Claude McKay, "After the Winter" (1922)
  23. To the Dark Mercedes of 'El Palacio de Amor' by Langston Hughes
  24. Claude McKay, "Home Thoughts" (1922)
  25. Thomas H. Brooks, "The U.N.I.A." (1921)
  26. Countee Cullen, "At the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem" (1927)
  27. Winter in the Country by Claude McKay
  28. Joseph Hazel Donaldson, "To Minnie" (1921)
  29. To One Coming North by Claude McKay
  30. Countee Cullen, "To Endymion" (1927)
  31. To Winter by Claude McKay
  32. Langston Hughes, "In a Mexican City" (1921)
  33. On the Road by Claude McKay
  34. Flame-Heart by Claude McKay
  35. Effie Lee Newsome, "Negro Street Serenade (In the South)" (1926)
  36. Langston Hughes, Biographical Note, "Caroling Dusk" (1927)
  37. Langston Hughes, "Ruby Brown" (1926)
  38. Arna Bontemps, "Close Your Eyes!" (1927)
  39. Arna Bontemps, "Here Is the Sea" (1926)
  40. The Spanish Needle by Claude McKay
  41. James Weldon Johnson, "Down By The Carib Sea" (1917)
  42. Lucy Ariel Williams, "Northboun'" (1926)
  43. Frances E.W. Harper, "The Present Age" (1896)
  44. In Bondage by Claude McKay
  45. T. Thomas Fortune, "The Clime of My Birth" (1905)
  46. Helene Johnson, "Fulfillment" (1926)
  47. Langston Hughes, "Fine Clothes to the Jew" (1927) (Full Text)
  48. I Shall Return by Claude McKay
  49. Hephzibah E. Willis, "To the Black Star Line" (1921)
  50. Countee Cullen, "On the Mediterranean Sea" (1927)
  51. On a Primitive Canoe by Claude McKay