19 pages • 38 minutes read
Claude McKayThe Tropics in New York
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1922A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"The Immigrant’s Song" by Tishani Doshi (2012)
Doshi is a contemporary Indian poet. The speaker of the poem is an immigrant who addresses other immigrants, wherever they may be. Unlike in “The Tropics in New York,” the speaker advises immigrants not to look back with nostalgia to the past but to accept and embrace their lives in their new country.
"When Dawn Comes to the City" by Claude McKay (1922)
This poem alternates between the sights and sounds of New York City at dawn, where the speaker lives, and the place that he longs for, “the island of the sea” (Line 9 ). “Tired,” “grumbling,” “lonely,” and “sadly” are among the words in this 44-line poem that describe the awakening city as cars and milk carts get moving. In contrast, the island at dawn is full of the natural, pleasing (to the poet) sounds of cocks, hens, cows, horses, and goats, and a stream falls “joyously” on the rocks. As with “The Tropics in New York,” there is no doubt about where the poet would prefer to be.
"Subway Wind" by Claude McKay (1922)
A New York City subway train arrives in a deafening roar of wind. For the poet, the wind is tired and trapped; it longs to blow elsewhere, more naturally, as an aid to ships, over the seas that surround a tropical island, as well as the island’s fields and palm trees. The contrast between city and country is a familiar theme for McKay (as “The Tropics in New York” also shows), and here it finds both ingenious and lyrical expression.
"Joy in the Woods" by Claude McKay (1922)
This is another poem that, like “The Tropics in New York,” contrasts the poet’s longing for a natural setting, with woods and birds, rather than the reality he must endure in the city. The speaker describes how his job is mere drudgery, his shoes hurt his feet, and his clothes are ugly. He goes on only because he must earn money for food.
Further Literary Resources
The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader edited by David Levering Lewis (1995)
This collection of poetry and prose of the Harlem Renaissance makes an excellent introduction to the movement of which McKay was such a prominent member. Writers featured include Sterling Brown, Countee Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and others. The work features McKay’s poems and two prose pieces excerpted from his 1937 autobiography A Long Way from Home. The volume also includes introductory essays and biographical notes.
A History of the Harlem Renaissance edited by Rachel Farebrother and Miriam Thaggert (2021)
This volume takes account of 100 years of scholarship about the Harlem Renaissance and thus reveals more about the context in which McKay wrote some of his best work. It also presents some of the history in a fresh light by offering new readings of authors, such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
Claude McKay: A Black Poet’s Struggle for Identity by Tyrone Tillery (1994)
This biography of McKay is a psychological portrait of a complex man. Tillery examines McKay’s life and work in the context of the tensions and contradictions that were inherent in the Harlem Renaissance.
Listen to Poem
Hans Ostrom, an American writer and professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Puget Sound, recites Claude McKay’s poem “The Tropics in New York”.
Related Titles
By Claude McKay
