Claude McKay's Early Poetry (1911-1922): A Digital Collection

Heritage

Now the dead past seems vividly alive,
     And in this shining moment I can trace,
Down through the vista of the vanished years,
     Your faun-like form, your fond elusive face.

And suddenly some secret spring’s released,
     And unawares a riddle is revealed,
And I can read like large, black-lettered print,
     What seemed before a thing forever sealed.

I know the magic word, the graceful thought,
     The song that fills me in my lucid hours,
The spirit’s wine that thrills my body through,
     And makes me music-drunk, are yours, all
            yours.

I cannot praise, for you have passed from praise,
     I have no tinted thoughts to paint you true;
But I can feel and I can write the word;
     The best of me is but the least of you.

​(Edited and Proofread by Brenda Martinez)

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