English Poetry. Claude McKay. To Winter. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) To Winter Stay, season of calm love and soulful snows! There is a subtle sweetness in the sun, The ripples on the stream’s breast gaily run, The wind more boisterously by me blows, And each succeeding day now longer […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. To O.E.A.. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) To O.E.A. Your voice is the color of a robin’s breast, And there’s a sweet sob in it like rain–still rain in the night. Among the leaves of the trumpet-tree, close to his nest, The pea-dove sings, and each note thrills me with […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. To a Poet. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) To a Poet There is a lovely noise about your name, Above the shoutings of the city clear, More than a moment’s merriment, whose claim Will greater grow with every mellowed year. The people will not bear you […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. The Night-Fire. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) The Night-Fire No engines shrieking rescue storm the night, And hose and hydrant cannot here avail; The flames laugh high and fling their challenging light, And clouds turn gray and black from silver-pale. The fire leaps out and licks […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Song of the Moon. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Song of the Moon The moonlight breaks upon the city’s domes, And falls along cemented steel and stone, Upon the grayness of a million homes, Lugubrious in unchanging monotone. Upon the clothes behind the tenement, That hang like ghosts suspended from the […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. On Broadway. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) On Broadway About me young careless feet Linger along the garish street; Above, a hundred shouting signs Shed down their bright fantastic glow Upon the merry crowd and lines Of moving carriages below. Oh wonderful is Broadway — only My heart, my heart […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. North and South. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) North and South O sweet are tropic lands for waking dreams! There time and life move lazily along. There by the banks of blue-and-silver streams Grass-sheltered crickets chirp incessant song, Gay-colored lizards loll all through the day, Their […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Memorial. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Memorial 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. I touched your flesh with reverential hands, […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. In Bondage. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) In Bondage I would be wandering in distant fields Where man, and bird, and beast, lives leisurely, And the old earth is kind, and ever yields Her goodly gifts to all her children free; Where life is fairer, lighter, […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Futility. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Futility Oh, I have tried to laugh the pain away, Let new flames brush my love-springs like a feather. But the old fever seizes me to-day, As sickness grips a soul in wretched weather. I have given up myself […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Exhortation: Summer 1919. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Exhortation: Summer 1919 Through the pregnant universe rumbles life’s terrific thunder, And Earth’s bowels quake with terror; strange and terrible storms break, Lightning-torches flame the heavens, kindling souls of men, thereunder: Africa! long ages sleeping, O my motherland, awake! […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Enslaved. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Enslaved Oh when I think of my long-suffering race, For weary centuries despised, oppressed, Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place In the great life line of the Christian West; And in the Black Land disinherited, Robbed in the ancient country of its […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. December, 1919. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) December, 1919 Last night I heard your voice, mother, The words you sang to me When I, a little barefoot boy, Knelt down against your knee. And tears gushed from my heart, mother, And passed beyond its wall, But though the fountain […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Baptism. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Baptism Into the furnace let me go alone; Stay you without in terror of the heat. I will go naked in–for thus ’’tis sweet– Into the weird depths of the hottest zone. I will not quiver in the frailest bone, You will not […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. America. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) America Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth! Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. After the Winter. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) After the Winter Some day, when trees have shed their leaves And against the morning’s white The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night, We’ll turn our faces southward, love, Toward the summer isle Where bamboos spire to shafted […]

English Poetry. Claude McKay. Absence. Клод Маккей.

Claude McKay (Клод Маккей) Absence Your words dropped into my heart like pebbles into a pool, Rippling around my breast and leaving it melting cool. Your kisses fell sharp on my flesh like dawn-dews from the limb, Of a fruit-filled lemon tree when […]