Claude McKay Quotes

“Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”

“I know the dark delight of being strange,
The penalty of difference in the crowd,
The loneliness of wisdom among fools”

“The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,
Devoured her with their eager, passionate gaze;
But looking at her falsely-smiling face,
I knew her self was not in that strange place.”

“Deep in the secret chambers of my heart
I muse my life-long hate, and without flinch
I bear it nobly as I live my part.”

“I have forgotten much, but still remember
The poinsiana's red, blood-red in warm December.”

“If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!”

“The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.”

“The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night.”

“Oh some I know! I have embalmed the days,
Even the sacred moments when we played,
All innocent of passion, uncorrupt,
At noon and evening in the flame-heart’s shade.”

“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!”

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