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By Claude McKay

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
     And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
     Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
     Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
     And wide-mouthed orchids smile.


And we will seek the quiet hill
     Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
     And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
     Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
     And ferns that never fade.


       

Source: Claude McKay: Complete Poems (University of Illinois Press, 2004)

  • Love
  • Nature
  • Relationships

Poet Bio

Claude McKay
After emigrating to America from Jamaica, Claude McKay became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Whether protesting racial and economic inequities or expressing romantic attachment, his poetry communicates its themes through vivid imagery and moving language. See More By This Poet

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