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Songs of Jamaica (Paperback)
Claude McKay; Contributions by Mint Editions
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R201
R167
Discovery Miles 1 670
Save R34 (17%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Songs of Jamaica (1912) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay.
Published before the poet left Jamaica for the United States, Songs
of Jamaica is a pioneering collection of verse written in Jamaican
Patois, the first of its kind. As a committed leftist, McKay was a
keen observer of the Black experience in the Caribbean, the
American South, and later in New York, where he gained a reputation
during the Harlem Renaissance for celebrating the resilience and
cultural achievement of the African American community while
lamenting the poverty and violence they faced every day. "Quashie
to Buccra," the opening poem, frames this schism in terms of labor,
as one class labors to fulfill the desires of another: "You tas'e
petater an' you say it sweet, / But you no know how hard we wuk fe
it; / You want a basketful fe quattiewut, / 'Cause you no know how
'tiff de bush fe cut." Addressing himself to a white audience, he
exposes the schism inherent to colonial society between white and
black, rich and poor. Advising his white reader to question their
privileged consumption, dependent as it is on the subjugation of
Jamaica's black community, McKay warns that "hardship always melt
away / Wheneber it comes roun' to reapin' day." This revolutionary
sentiment carries throughout Songs of Jamaica, finding an echo in
the brilliant poem "Whe' fe do?" Addressed to his own people, McKay
offers hope for a brighter future to come: "We needn' fold we han'
an' cry, / Nor vex we heart wid groan and sigh; / De best we can do
is fe try / To fight de despair drawin' night: / Den we might
conquer by an' by- / Dat we might do." With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Claude
McKay's Songs of Jamaica is a classic of Jamaican literature
reimagined for modern readers.
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Songs of Jamaica (Hardcover)
Claude McKay; Contributions by Mint Editions
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R327
R271
Discovery Miles 2 710
Save R56 (17%)
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
Songs of Jamaica (1912) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay.
Published before the poet left Jamaica for the United States, Songs
of Jamaica is a pioneering collection of verse written in Jamaican
Patois, the first of its kind. As a committed leftist, McKay was a
keen observer of the Black experience in the Caribbean, the
American South, and later in New York, where he gained a reputation
during the Harlem Renaissance for celebrating the resilience and
cultural achievement of the African American community while
lamenting the poverty and violence they faced every day. "Quashie
to Buccra," the opening poem, frames this schism in terms of labor,
as one class labors to fulfill the desires of another: "You tas'e
petater an' you say it sweet, / But you no know how hard we wuk fe
it; / You want a basketful fe quattiewut, / 'Cause you no know how
'tiff de bush fe cut." Addressing himself to a white audience, he
exposes the schism inherent to colonial society between white and
black, rich and poor. Advising his white reader to question their
privileged consumption, dependent as it is on the subjugation of
Jamaica's black community, McKay warns that "hardship always melt
away / Wheneber it comes roun' to reapin' day." This revolutionary
sentiment carries throughout Songs of Jamaica, finding an echo in
the brilliant poem "Whe' fe do?" Addressed to his own people, McKay
offers hope for a brighter future to come: "We needn' fold we han'
an' cry, / Nor vex we heart wid groan and sigh; / De best we can do
is fe try / To fight de despair drawin' night: / Den we might
conquer by an' by- / Dat we might do." With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Claude
McKay's Songs of Jamaica is a classic of Jamaican literature
reimagined for modern readers.
LARGE PRINT EDITION. Songs of Jamaica (1912) is a poetry collection
by Claude McKay. Published before the poet left Jamaica for the
United States, Songs of Jamaica is a pioneering collection of verse
written in Jamaican Patois, the first of its kind. As a committed
leftist, McKay was a keen observer of the Black experience in the
Caribbean, the American South, and later in New York, where he
gained a reputation during the Harlem Renaissance for celebrating
the resilience and cultural achievement of the African American
community while lamenting the poverty and violence they faced every
day. “Quashie to Buccra,” the opening poem, frames this schism
in terms of labor, as one class labors to fulfill the desires of
another: “You tas’e petater an’ you say it sweet, / But you
no know how hard we wuk fe it; / You want a basketful fe
quattiewut, / ‘Cause you no know how ‘tiff de bush fe cut.”
Addressing himself to a white audience, he exposes the schism
inherent to colonial society between white and black, rich and
poor. Advising his white reader to question their privileged
consumption, dependent as it is on the subjugation of Jamaica’s
black community, McKay warns that “hardship always melt away /
Wheneber it comes roun’ to reapin’ day.” This revolutionary
sentiment carries throughout Songs of Jamaica, finding an echo in
the brilliant poem “Whe’ fe do?” Addressed to his own people,
McKay offers hope for a brighter future to come: “We needn’
fold we han’ an’ cry, / Nor vex we heart wid groan and sigh; /
De best we can do is fe try / To fight de despair drawin’ night:
/ Den we might conquer by an’ by— / Dat we might do.” With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of Claude McKay’s Songs of Jamaica is a classic of
Jamaican literature reimagined for modern readers.
Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems (1920) is a poetry
collection by Claude McKay. Published toward the beginning of the
Harlem Renaissance, Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems is the
first of McKay's collections to appear in the United States. As a
committed leftist, McKay-who grew up in Jamaica-captures the life
of African Americans from a realist's point of view, lamenting
their exposure to poverty, racism, and violence while celebrating
their resilience and cultural achievement. Several years before T.
S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) and William Carlos Williams'
Spring and All (1923), modernist poet Claude McKay troubles the
traditional symbol of springtime to accommodate the hardships of an
increasingly industrialized world. In "Spring in New Hampshire,"
the poet gives voice to a desperate laborer, for whom the beauty
and harmony of the season of rebirth are not only sickening, but
altogether inaccessible: "Too green the springing April grass, /
Too blue the silver-speckled sky, / For me to linger here, alas, /
While happy winds go laughing by, / Wasting the golden hours
indoors, / Washing windows and scrubbing floors." A master of
traditional forms, McKay brings his experience as a black man to
bear on a poem otherwise dedicated to descriptions of natural
beauty, challenging the very tradition his language and style
invoke. In "The Lynching," he calls on the reader to witness the
brutality of American racism while exposing the complicity of those
who would look without feeling: "[S]oon the mixed crowds came to
view / The ghastly body swaying in the sun: / The women thronged to
look, but never a one / Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely
blue..." As children dance around the victim's body, "lynchers that
were to be," McKay raises a terrible, timeless question: how long
will such violence endure? With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Claude McKay's
Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems is a classic of Jamaican
literature reimagined for modern readers.
Harlem Shadows (1922) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay.
Published at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem Shadows
earned praise from legendary poet and political activist Max
Eastman for its depictions of urban life and the technical mastery
of its author. As a committed leftist, McKay-who grew up in
Jamaica-captures the life of Harlem from a realist's point of view,
lamenting the poverty of its African American community while
celebrating their resilience and cultural achievement. In "The
White City," McKay observes New York, its "poles and spires and
towers vapor-kissed" and "fortressed port through which the great
ships pass." Filled him with a hatred of the inhuman scene of
industry and power, forced to "muse [his] life-long hate," he
observes the transformative quality of focused anger: "My being
would be a skeleton, a shell, / If this dark Passion that fills my
every mood, / And makes my heaven in the white world's hell, / Did
not forever feed me vital blood." Rather than fall into despair, he
channels his hatred into a revolutionary spirit, allowing him to
stand tall within "the mighty city." In "The Tropics in New York,"
he walks past a window filled with "Bananas ripe and green, and
ginger-root, / Cocoa in pods and alligator pears," a feast of fresh
tropical fruit that brings him back, however briefly, to his island
home of Jamaica. Recording his nostalgic response, McKay captures
his personal experience as an immigrant in America: "My eyes grew
dim, and I could no more gaze; / A wave of longing through my body
swept, / And, hungry for the old, familiar ways, / I turned aside
and bowed my head and wept." With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Claude McKay's
Harlem Shadows is a classic of Jamaican literature reimagined for
modern readers.
As the smoky dark sweeps across the capital, strange stories emerge
from the night. A seance reveals a ghastly secret in the murk of
Regent's Canal. From south of the Thames come chilling reports of a
spring-heeled spectre, and in Stoke Newington rumours abound of an
opening to another world among the quiet alleys. Join Elizabeth
Dearnley on this atmospheric tour through a shadowy London, a city
which has long inspired writers of the weird and uncanny. Waiting
in the hazy streets are eerie tales from Charlotte Riddell, Lettice
Galbraith and Violet Hunt, along with haunting pieces by Virginia
Woolf, Arthur Machen, Sam Selvon and many more.
Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known on the 1920s Marseilles waterfront as “
Banjo,” prowls the rough waterfront bistros with his drifter
friends, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting,
loving, and talking - about their homes in Africa, the West Indies,
or the american South and about being black.
While stowed away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is
discovered and locked away in an icy-cold closet, resulting in the
loss of his frostbitten legs. When his successful lawsuit against
the shipping company brings big bucks, Lafala returns to Marseille
to resume his affair with Aslima, a Moroccan prostitute. With its
scenes of black bodies seeking pleasure and fighting for freedom
even when stolen, shipped, and sold for parts, Romance in Marseille
explores the heritage of slavery amid a predatory modern economy.
With sensual, often brutal accuracy, Claude McKay traces the
parallel paths of two very different young men struggling to find
their way through the suspicion and prejudice of American society.
At the same time, this stark but moving story touches on the
central themes of the Harlem Renaissance, including the urgent need
for unity and identity among blacks.
VINTAGE CLASSICS' HARLEM RENAISSANCE SERIES Celebrating the finest
works of the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important Black
arts movements in modern history. 'Why did I want to mix mahself up
in a white folk's war? It ain't ever was any of black folks'
affair' When Jake Brown joins the army during the First World War,
he is treated more like a slave than a soldier. After deserting his
post to escape the racial violence he is facing, Jake travels back
home to Harlem. But despite the distance, Jake cannot seem to
escape the past and the explosive ways in which it can culminate.
Written with brutal accuracy, Home to Harlem is an extraordinary
work, and was the first American bestseller by a Black writer. 'One
of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance' Washington
Post
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Harlem Shadows (Paperback)
Claude McKay, Jericho Brown
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R391
R314
Discovery Miles 3 140
Save R77 (20%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Harlem Shadows
Claude McKay
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R845
Discovery Miles 8 450
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Containing more than three hundred poems, including nearly a
hundred previously unpublished works, this unique collection
showcases the intellectual range of Claude McKay (1889-1948), the
Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose life and work were marked by
restless travel and steadfast social protest. McKay's first poems
were composed in rural Jamaican creole and launched his lifelong
commitment to representing everyday black culture from the bottom
up. Migrating to New York, he reinvigorated the English sonnet and
helped spark the Harlem Renaissance with poems such as "If We Must
Die." After coming under scrutiny for his communism, he traveled
throughout Europe and North Africa for twelve years and returned to
Harlem in 1934, having denounced Stalin's Soviet Union. By then,
McKay's pristine "violent sonnets" were giving way to confessional
lyrics informed by his newfound Catholicism.
McKay's verse eludes easy definition, yet this complete
anthology, vividly introduced and carefully annotated by William J.
Maxwell, acquaints readers with the full transnational evolution of
a major voice in twentieth-century poetry.
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