Claude McKay

In-class individual writing for “Harlem Dancer”: In what specific ways does the speaker set himself apart from the other audience members who watch the dancer? Why do you think he makes a point to do this in the poem? 

Portrait of Claude McKay, addressed to James
Weldon Johnson, "my...esteemed fellow craftsman."

Group work: First, briefly discuss "Harlem Dancer": What do you think the dancer’s situation is? (Where does she work? What is her life like? How is she different from and/or similar to the audience that consumes her performance?) How does the speaker transform or elevate her situation and/or performance? 

Then discuss the questions below for either "To the White Fiends" or "America"

“To the White Fiends”

• Summarize the message or argument of this poem, as you see it. Be sure to attend to the way the poem’s ideas shift as it develops.
• Is this a threat? Or is it a rebuke? Or something else? How does the second half of the poem change the threat that may be seen in the first half? Does the threat still remain, or is it diffused?
• Does this poem remind you of any poem we’ve read so far this semester? If so, which and how? If not, does it call to mind any other poem, story, or song?

“America”

• Which America does McKay focus on? What details call this version of America into being?
• What aspects of America does the poem notinclude or focus on in the “she” described in the poem? (Keep in mind when you answer this that the poem was written in 1921).
• How do you read the last four lines? What future does McKay’s speaker imagine for America, and how do you imagine this future might come about, in his mind?
• Does this poem remind you of any other poem you’ve ever read? If so, which and how? If not, does it call to mind any other story, song, etc.?