Paying Tribute to Love

The poem “Memorial,” by Claude McKay, is close to the end of his collection Harlem Shadows.  While not many poems in McKay’s collection are longer than two pages, “Memorial” is one of the longest.  In his collection of poems published during the Harlem Renaissance, there are three prominent chronological themes: remembering one’s homeland, empowering African Americans, and revering love and loss.  In this Harlem Renaissance poem, McKay reflects the third theme of love and loss.  McKay uses structure, rhyme, unusual comparisons, and a song-like rhythm to acknowledge the power of love.

McKay wrote this memorial poem for a significant person in his life.  He begins the poem by addressing the woman’s “sacred cell” as a rare jewel.  He remembers a night where he treated her with grace and respect, with his loving hands.  As he remembers the romance and deep love between them, McKay treasures every moment of his nights with this woman.  Instead of simply saying how beautiful the she was, he likens her to precious objects.  He describes the curves of her body with awe.  Like many men, he is captured by this woman’s beauty, but unlike many men he carefully courts her and sees beauty in every part of her body, “The joy in your maturity at length/the peace that filled my soul like cooling wine/when you responded to my tender strength/and pressed your heart exulting into mine.”  By remembering her in this way, he is able to relive the happiness he experienced while around her.

In “Memorial,” the structure is simple and consistent.  The poem consists of six stanzas, each with four lines.  Each of the 24 lines has ten syllables.  Within each line, there are three accents.  The meter starts with an unaccented syllable followed by a series of three dactyls, with a total of 3 accents and 7 unaccented syllables.  It is interesting that after saying he tried not to adopt common patterns within his poetry, McKay holds a fairly predictable pattern in this poem.  With a standard pattern on a large scale and small scale, McKay helps the reader follow his content with each line flowing into the next.

As discussed in the author’s note at the beginning of the Harlem Shadows collection, McKay does not choose specific rhyme schemes to follow before writing poems.  He claims that any patterns that exist within his writing are there because they fulfill his intended purpose and sound.  It is fascinating that “Memorial” has a very definite and rigid pattern of rhyme.  Beginning with the first stanza and ending with the sixth, there is end rhyme following an ABAB, CDCD, etc. pattern, seen from line one to four, “Your body was a sacred cell always/a jewel that grew dull in garish light/an opal which beneath my wondering gaze/gleamed rarely, softly throbbing in the night.”  The regular rhyme makes this memorial to a loved one song-like.

The most notable poetic devices that McKay utilizes in this poem are similes and metaphors.  McKay emphasizes in his author’s note that he does not intentionally create unusual comparisons so the ones that are present flowed naturally with his writing.  Within “Memorial,” there are two metaphors.  One is in the third stanza, line two, “…my passion was a mighty wave.”  There is a simile in the fifth stanza, line two, “…peace that filled my soul like cooling wine.”  The comparison to wine further suggests romance.  Both of these comparisons help the reader grasp McKay’s emotions concerning his significant other.  McKay’s heart and soul were flooded in his love and affection for this woman.

“Memorial” serves as a memorial to love.  While McKay describes a specific woman and his love for her, he uses the comparison to pay tribute to love in many forms.  At the end of the poem, McKay reveals his grief over losing this woman.  In his words, he would rather suffer the grief then try to find a substitute right away.  This image can be connected to the loss of love in general.  In this way, McKay is paying a tribute to a woman as well as love in the memorial poem.

Fighting Back

In Claude McKay’s volume of poetry, Harlem Shadows, published in 1922, McKay uses poetry to share his African American heritage with his readers.  Many of his poems reflect on his home in Jamaica and his family.  Other poems in the collection encourage his fellow African Americans to embrace their heritage and withstand their oppression in the hopes that they will soon hold a better position in society.  One of his poems in particular inspires blacks to push through the years of racism and to hope for better days ahead.  McKay’s poetic devices and structure in “If We Must Die,” coupled with the rough years preceding the Civil Rights Movement, correlate with the desire for American respect and African American confidence.

In his poem, McKay conveys his sincerity and humility concerning his African heritage through his diction.  McKay chooses specific words to create images and invoke emotions.  In the first section of the poem, he describes the scene of dogs penning hogs in a corner, “hunted and penned in an inglorious spot.”  Words like “penned” and “inglorious” portray an unavoidable and degrading situation in which escape is unlikely.  Later on in the poem, McKay says, “Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”  These are ordinary words put into an unnatural context.  Words in the repeated phrase and title, “If we must die…” communicate surrender.  These words mark the moments where McKay relinquishes his desires with the hope that oppression of African Americans will soon end.  McKay’s words put together reveal a humble mind yet unwavering spirit.  Throughout the poem, McKay uses simple but poignant words to express fortitude.

            To creatively express his purpose within the poem, McKay uses a variety of poetic devices to mold ordinary words into an original poem.  The most prevalent device he uses is personification.  In the first half of the poem, pigs are personified to represent blacks and dogs are personified to represent whites, “… round us [the pigs—blacks] bark the mad and hungry dogs, making their mock at our accursed lot.”  The pigs are personified with a “lot,” or predicament, and the dogs are personified with mocking, making fun of the pigs’ unfortunate situation.

McKay also uses metaphors, both extended and temporary.  The extended metaphor is in the first half of the poem when McKay uses the continuing comparison of barn animals to humans.  He compares the relationship between dogs and hogs to the relationship between blacks and whites in the early twentieth century.  Dogs, particularly hunting or herding dogs, put pigs in their place.  Pigs are known as dirty animals that eat scraps and become the food on our plates.  Dogs are enforcers; they keep other animals in line.  However, pigs are just as smart as dogs, revealing how African Americans felt just as capable as whites.  McKay also uses a collection of temporary metaphors like in line seven, “…then even the monsters we defy….”  Shorter metaphors show glimpses of emotion that are first thought to be harsh but later found to be a creative form of conveying emotion.  The animal metaphors show how McKay and other African Americans hated being likened to dirt and treated as inferior and unequal to whites.

            While the diction and poetic devices create meaning with words, the structure of the poem constructs meaning with form.  The poem seems to follow the model of a sonnet.  There are twelve lines with an attached couplet; there is a regular end rhyme pattern following an ABAB CDCD model throughout.  In some instances, the rhyme is approximate.  McKay’s common topic of hope and purpose in life unifies the poem without strict meter.  The repeated phrase, “If we must die…” also succeeds in tying the poem together while allowing flexibility.

            Throughout the poem, there is a common message of perseverance and humility.  McKay does not linger on the bad times; he encourages other blacks to bring about change as well as remember and embrace their heritage and identity.  Because African Americans suffered from racism and prejudice up until the latter part of the twentieth century, they deserved to oppose the whites who persecuted and killed them.  However, McKay seems to optimistically approach the past of torment with the hope that it may benefit future generations.  In the early twentieth century, blacks were willing to suffer if it meant, “… though far outnumbered let us show us brave, and for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!  What though before us lies the open grave?  Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”  This poem was written as a response to social conflicts arising in the early twentieth century.  In particular, “If We Must Die” was written as a response to the Red Scare of 1919 when Americans were violently acting against each other and other races.  With this poem, McKay hoped to encourage African Americans to stand strong through the conflict and look for resolution.

             During his life, Claude McKay witnessed many startling and disturbing instances where African Americans were oppressed.  The social turmoil in the early 1900s leading up to the Civil Rights Movement sparked determination and a will for equality in McKay that inspired this poem calling for freedom.  With his concise and poignant images, McKay helps his readers feel how many African Americans have suffered as well as his hope for better days and confidence in his fellow African Americans to stand strong.  Through a unique blend of words, poetic devices, structure, and powerful theme, the poem cries for integrity, morality, and respect.

A Man of Magnitude

Francis Claudius McKay was born on September 15, 1890 in Sunny Hills, Jamaica.  He was the son of two farmers and the youngest of eleven children (Giles 1).  When he was young, McKay attended a school run by his older brother, who possessed a collection of poetry, English novels, and scientific texts, in addition to a wealth of knowledge (Poets.org).  These early years of education, combined with encouragement from a mentor in later years, launched McKay into his writing career. (Giles 1)

            In 1912, McKay immigrated to the United States, where he continued writing.  His emphasis at the time was on poetry.  With the publication of two collections of poetry written in Jamaican dialect, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, both in 1912, he received recognition as a rising poet among American poets.  After the publication of his first two albums of poetry, he pursued further education at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama from 1912 to 1914, and Kansas State College in 1914.  In 1914, McKay settled down in New York and was soon married and expecting a child.  Unfortunately, due to marriage problems, his pregnant wife left him.  After several years of depression and little writing, McKay decided to return to his gift. (Giles 1)

Some of McKay’s next moves as a rising poet were accepting an editorial position for The Liberator and authoring several articles for the Democratic Party (Britannica).  McKay returned to his poetry as well.  In the 1920s, he produced “Baptism,” “The White House,” “The Lynching,” and “If We Must Die.”  The latter was composed in response to the Red Summer of 1919, an era of fear and violence that accompanied World War I.  This sonnet was later referred to by Winston Churchill as, “an anthem of resistance.”  McKay also wrote a series of novels describing his homeland, Jamaica.  Although he covered a wide variety of topics in his poems and novels spanning from his homeland to romance and love, most of McKay’s work centered around black history and his Jamaican heritage (Poets.org).  McKay wrote with a common purpose of uniting blacks and creating, “a distinctive black identity” (Britannica). 

            During several extensive trips abroad, McKay received inspiration for a literature movement in the United States.  He longed for a way for blacks to be set apart from whites and to return to their old African culture.  He received criticism from many liberal Americans because of his calls for a distinguished black society.  McKay was particularly interested in a neighborhood in New York, in the Manhattan area, where blacks felt independent of white influence and safe to be themselves.  This area became known as Black Manhattan and the “Negro Mecca.”  The final name was Harlem, which meant, “city of refuge.”  In Harlem, blacks felt separate from whites and racism and free to dream (Chambers 25).  These racial conflicts inspired a literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, which began in the early 1920’s.

McKay, along with James Weldon Johnson and Charles W. Chesnutt, was one of the founding fathers of the Harlem Renaissance. Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston soon joined them.  These writers told of struggles to overcome racial boundaries of the time as well as set new standards for blacks.  They called for a new age of blacks in America, those who were strong, perseverant, and determined to create a new image for themselves.  The writers were eloquent, educated, and motivated to make something significant out of their lives and to show those outside of Harlem what African Americans are capable of (McElrath 1). 

McKay’s poetry collection Harlem Shadows (1922) was written and published during the heart of the Harlem Renaissance.  This collection directly espouses the primary focuses of the movement established by McKay, Johnson, and Chesnutt to empower and instill hope in African Americans.  The poems in Harlem Shadows describe McKay’s home in Jamaica, his family, his initial years in the United States, and the racism and prejudice he was subjected to as an African American.  This collection ties these experiences and emotions together to encourage other African American citizens and writers to embrace their heritages and identities as United States citizens and to stand strong through the abuse they suffered because of their color.  Harlem Shadows empowers blacks to embrace their past in the present (McElrath 1).

The artistic movement ended in the 1930’s, at the beginning of the Great Depression when resources were scarce and many Harlem Renaissance artists were forced to find other forms of income and different lifestyles.  However, the Harlem Renaissance started a wave of hope among African American citizens and artists that led to the Civil Rights Movement later on in the 20^th century.  Harlem Renaissance writers give readers today glimpses of black segregation and persecution as well as the intense pride and loyalty in African American history (McElrath 1).

After the movement, McKay continued writing and travelling on his own until he began to have heart problems, forcing him to permanently reside in the United States and live a slower life.  He wrote a few pieces including an autobiography.  In 1944, while living in Chicago, McKay suffered from congestive heart failure and passed away, leaving a legacy of hope, inspiration, change, and masterpieces. (Giles 1)

Claude McKay

For my Individual Poetry Project, I chose Claude McKay to research his life and career and analyze his poetry.  He was influential in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.  Many of his poems were written to encourage other African Americans to embrace their heritage, band together to stand strong in the face of oppression, and understand the importance of love and family.  The following four posts will include a small biography, a short poem analysis of his poem "If We Must Die," a long poem analysis of "Memorial," and the complete poetry project that connects McKay's life to his collection of poetry Harlem Shadows, which includes the two previous poems.