Claude McKay

“Your door is shut against my tightened face, And I am sharp as steel with discontent.”

“Peace, O my heart, let us be silent and Oblivious to the pressure and the pain.”

“If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot.”

“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 strength erect against her hate.”

“And, hungry for the old, familiar ways, I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.”

“But looking at her falsely-smiling face, I knew her self was not in that strange place.”

“Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour, Deep in my wrath, and strive to be a man.”

“I shall return again; I shall return To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes.”

“For the dim regions whence my fathers came my spirit, bondaged by the body, longs.”

“Something in me is lost, forever lost, Some vital thing has gone out of my heart.”

“I will come out, back to your world of tears, A stronger soul within a finer frame.”

“Idealism is like a castle in the air if it is not based on a solid foundation of social and political realism.”

“Oh, when I think of my long-suffering race, For weary centuries despised, oppressed.”

“What is the use of being theoretically radical, and at the same time reactionary in one's personal contacts?”

“All my life I have been a troubadour, a singer of songs.”

“Ideas have a right to travel.”