I really enjoyed the poems of Claude Mckay. I think he he said what he wanted to say and felt no remorse or fear of repercussions. His feelings were clearly presented through his writings. I especially loved "The White House" and "Harlem Shadows".
I think that in "The White House" Mckay portrays his anger and his strength to never succumb to the constant hardships he's slammed with nicely. His words are strong and direct and the first line says it all "Your door is shut against my tightened face, and I am sharp as steel with discontent". He's never going to settle and give in to what he feels is unjust. He made a strong statement.
I thought "Harlem Shadows" was heartbreaking. He portrays how his own heart is breaking at the sight and sounds of "his own fallen race" being pushed into such horrible situations and how it's unjust. He makes you feel bad for these girls just as he does and he almost portrays them as innocent ("ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet...") despite what they are doing. It shows the situations that whites' oppression put them in.
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I thought that the "white house" was good as well. It definitely showed that he was unwilling to backdown and his perserverance no matter what the whites throw his way.
Harlem Shadows was a very moving poem. McKay’s line “ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace…” is so brutally honest. His race has been forced to live in a world of such bitter harshness that they are forced down out of fear and have been pushed so far into poverty, not because they don’t want to work hard and overcome, but instead because they have been put there, pushed there, forced there.
His words clearly paint a picture that the black race has been put into a state of dishonor and disgrace just to survive.
I also really liked that McKay voiced his opinions through his poems in a manner that was fearless and honest. It was extremely brave of him to openly discuss the oppression that African Americans faced during this time. I find it to be even more impressive that most of his poems were published in the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance when African Americans were not as openly voicing their opinions through their writing.
As this poem is dark, negative, and depressing I think McKay wanted to show the side of African Americans that whites seemed to take notice of. Similar to what Johnson stated as he was traveling through the south, whites associate the entire black race with those blacks on the bottom of the social and economic structures. Here in Harlem Shadows, McKay paints a vivid picture of these blacks living in “poverty, dishonor, and disgrace.” He continues to talk about “little feet of clay” which represents falling and those who have struggled through life and seem to fail due to white oppression.
I completely agree with you, Kristen. See, my issue is...poetry does NOT come easy to me at all. I understood it alot better when we all broke them down and discussed them. I felt todays poems were a little easier to understand. However, after discussing the poems with the class, I see exactly what you are saying. He makes a very strong statement in "The White House" as well as alot of his other poems but I agree that he is not going to give in to the unjust treatment. Your statement at the end of your blog makes complete sense as to why he writes what he does and how we can sympathize with these girls, "It shows the situations that whites' oppression put them in". I completely agree. They weren't "there" in the moment, it was like they were doing that to just get by, to make a living.
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