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• 1 2017-07-17T16:40:52-04:00 Selected Poems of Claude McKay (1953) 6 Approximating the Table of Contents of "Selected Poems of Claude McKay" plain 2017-09-13T20:53:29-04:00
  Selected Poems of Claude McKay is the final collection of his poems authored by Claude McKay; it was published by Bookman & Associates in 1953 with an introduction by John Dewey. Subsequently, the Selected Poems was widely reprinted by Harvest/HBJ -- with the Dewey introduction replaced by a biographical note by Max Eastman. 
  
  Wayne Cooper indicates that Claude McKay put together this particular collection himself in his final year (1948); the collection was finally published posthumously in 1953. As far as we know, there is no indication that McKay intended for the selection to be restrictive, which is to say, by including this particular selection he was not necessarily disowning his other writing. It's worth noting that despite his turn, later in life, to a committed anti-Communist politics, McKay did keep many of his more passionate anti-racist poems in the collection (see the "Baptism" section). 
  
  The majority of the poems were taken from McKay's early poetry -- specifically from Harlem Shadows. Where McKay elected to include a poem published later -- especially where we are unclear about copyright questions -- we have not included the full text of the poem on this site. Intriguingly, poems from Constab Ballads and Songs for Jamaica are both almost entirely absent from Selected Poems. The one exception is "Sukee River," though the version McKay included here combines the first verse of the 1912 version of the poem (from Constab Ballads) with the 1920 version (from Cambridge Magazine and Spring in New Hampshire). 
  
  The main novelty of this collection consists of the thematic groupings McKay created around his poems: "Songs for Jamaica," "Baptism,"  "Americana," "Different Places," and "Amoroso." "Songs for Jamaica" are largely poems from Harlem Shadows that deal with "Home" (and indeed, the list of poems McKay picked out here overlaps with the "Home" tag on this site, derived independently from our interpretations of McKay's poems). Poems under "Baptism" largely deal with race-relations in the United States (compare to our "Race" tag). And "Amoroso" corresponds to our "Desire" and "Homoeroticism" tags. 
  
  Table of Contents
  
  Songs for Jamaica
  Flame Heart
  The Easter Flower
  Spring in New Hampshire
  Summer Morn in New Hampshire
  Sukee River * 
  Homing Swallows
  To One Coming North
  North and South
  Home Thoughts
  My Mother
  December, 1919
  The Spanish Needle
  The Plateau
  Wild May
  Adolescence
  The Wild Goat
  Heritage
  After the Winter
  The Tropics in New York
  I Shall Return
  
  Baptism
  Baptism
  If We Must Die
  The Lynching
  To the White Fiends
  In Bondage
  Africa
  Outcast
  Enslaved (new) *
  O Word I Love to Sing
  Like a Strong Tree (new) *
  Truth
  Tiger
  The Wise Men of the East
  The Pagan Isms
  The Negro's Tragedy
  The Negro's Friend
  The Desolate City
  A Prayer
  I Know My Soul
  
  Americana
  America
  Harlem Shadows
  The Harlem Dancer
  When Dawn Comes to the City
  On the Road
  Dawn in New York
  The City's Love
  On Broadway
  French Leave
  A Song of the Moon (see "Moon Song" [1922])
  Morning Joy
  Winter in the Country
  To Winter
  The Castaways
  The White City
  Subway Wind
  Alfonso, Dressing to Wait at Table
  Rest in Peace
  The White House
  The Tired Worker
  The Barrier
  
  Different Places
  Moscow
  St. Isaac's Church, Petrograd
  Barcelona
  Tetuan
  A Farewell to Morocco
  
  Amoroso
  Absence
  A Red Flower
  To O.E.A.
  Romance
  Flower of Love
  The Snow Fairy
  A Memory of June
  Flirtation
  Polarity
  Tormented
  Jasmine
  Commemoration
  Memorial
  One Year After
  Futility
  Through Agony
  Thirst
  Courage