THE LYNCHING
His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon 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;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
- Claude McKay
Jamaican writer and poet, who was a seminal figure in the Harlem
Renaissance. In 1977, the government of Jamaica named him the national
poet and posthumously awarded him the Order of Jamaica for his
contribution to literature. In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante listed Claude
McKay on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. He is regarded as
the "foremost left-wing black intellectual of his age" and his work
heavily influenced a generation of black authors including James Baldwin
and Richard Wright.
THE LYNCHING
His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon 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;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
- Claude McKay
Jamaican writer and poet, who was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In 1977, the government of Jamaica named him the national poet and posthumously awarded him the Order of Jamaica for his contribution to literature. In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante listed Claude McKay on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. He is regarded as the "foremost left-wing black intellectual of his age" and his work heavily influenced a generation of black authors including James Baldwin and Richard Wright.
His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon 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;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
- Claude McKay
Jamaican writer and poet, who was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In 1977, the government of Jamaica named him the national poet and posthumously awarded him the Order of Jamaica for his contribution to literature. In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante listed Claude McKay on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. He is regarded as the "foremost left-wing black intellectual of his age" and his work heavily influenced a generation of black authors including James Baldwin and Richard Wright.
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