When Dawn Comes to the City

“The Tropics in New York” by Claude McKay (1922)

A riff on the theme of displacement and evocative nostalgia, in this variation the poet focuses on the tropical fruits available in the city and how, despite their pungent tastes and sweet aromas, they cannot recreate the feel of feasting on those fruits back home in Jamaica. The senses can be fooled but not the memory as “a wave of longing through my body swept,” and the speaker’s eyes dim with tears.

“Subway Wind” by Claude McKay (1922)

A city subway train arrives in a roar of wind that is tired and trapped; the wind longs to exist elsewhere, naturally, as an aid to ships and over the seas that surround a tropical island. The contrast between city and country is a familiar theme for McKay, and here it finds both inventive and lyrical expression.

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes (1921)

Written by one of the most recognized poets of the Harlem Renaissance, this poem explores both Black cultural identity and historical experience, comparing the depth of both to rivers that have flowed since the beginning of time.