Thursday, September 20, 2007
Although poetry is not my forte, I did not mind reading the book of Claude McKay Selected Poems. Throughout most of the poems that were read, imagery of lightness and darkness were emphasized continuously. However, the image of lightness was mainly portrayed in his poems that mentioned his homeland, such as "Home Thoughts" and "Tropics in New York." the darker images, on the other hand, related primarily to America ("Harlem Shadows"). Also in each poem written directly about America, and his experiences in America, McKay seems to keep a consistent tone of frustration. However, McKay's tone shifts dramatically to loneliness and even sadness when he becomes nostalgic toward his homeland. Both McKay's images, as well as, his shifts in tone made me question why Claude McKay decided to stay in America if he felt such intense feelings toward his beloved homeland. However, such extremes of lightness and darkness that were depicted in his poetry reveal that both images can be either positive or negative, but they are all very complex.
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6 comments:
I definitely agree with you. Poetry is not my forte either but I feel you summed everything up pretty well. I also wondered if he had so much dislike and frustration towards America why did he stay here? Maybe there were circumstances that caused him to leave his homeland and come to America? Maybe since he left he can't go back. Guess we will never know the answer to that though.
It is hard to imagine why he would chose to stay here. Even if Jamaica held racist practices on par to America’s at the time, it seems he is not affected by it. The only thing I can think is perhaps he wanted to stay here to speak out (in his own way) on the things observed. Also, maybe the conditions he longingly remembers of home are not the same as they were presently. Maybe family members or friends he once knew were dead or had moved and he just simply chooses to only to remember them, and other good things about home.
I found all the longing for his homeland interesting also. I guess in this day and age you think, hey if you don't like it then leave, but like we said in class maybe he wanted the memories, history, and spirituality of the homeland more than the actual materialistic, concrete homeland that he sort of indicates in the writings? Not sure.
I do agree that he did have lightness and definitly darkness in his poems the one that i iked that was the most was "tropics in new york" it was memories of jamaica and what he remembers form it the good times but sad that he doesnt have it anymore. Then on the other hand the darkness in th poems are related to america i thought the why didn't he go back to jamaica if it wasnt good for him here.
I really enjoy poetry because you can interpret it any way you really like. I also questioned why McKay just didn't leave the United States if he loved his homeland so much. Perhaps if he went back he would have been a stranger in his home land. Maybe Jamaica wasn't like it used to be in bright contrasting colors. It's like going on vacation and once you find something different from your home town you automatically don't like it and nothing can ever beat your home town.
You hit the nail on the head. There is a really strong dichotomy in McKay's work when he's talking about America compared to his poems about his home of Jamaica. His view of Jamaica is very nostalgic, perhaps overly idealized, considering Jamaica was certainly not known for exemplary race relations at the time. America, on the other hand, is viewed with almost complete disgust over the injustice taking place.
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