Claude McKay

LitCharts guides for works by Claude McKay

Explore LitCharts poetry guides for works by Claude McKay. Each guide offers line-by-line analysis, exploration of poetic devices, and helpful resources for studying Claude McKay's poetry.

America

Claude McKay's "America" is a sonnet first published in 1921, early in the arts and literary movement that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. It expresses the Jamaican-born McKay's ambivalent ... view guide

Harlem Shadows

Claude McKay published "Harlem Shadows" in 1922. The poem appeared in McKay's collection of the same name, which was one of the first influential books of poetry published during the Harlem Renaiss... view guide

If We Must Die

“If We Must Die” is a Shakespearean sonnet written by the Jamaican poet Claude McKay in 1919. It is a poem of political resistance: it calls for oppressed people to resist their oppressors, violent... view guide

The Harlem Dancer

"The Harlem Dancer" is a sonnet by the Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay. The poem offers a tender portrait of a nightclub dancer, describing the contrast between her distracted inner thoughts an... view guide

The Tropics in New York

"The Tropics in New York" is a poem by Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay, an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance, originally published in 1920 in the socialist magazine The Liberatore. I... view guide

The White House

"The White House" is a searing indictment of anti-Black racism by the Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay, a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Written at a time when Black Americans lacked ... view guide