FROM THE POETRY SHELF1922

After The Winter

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 to 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.

Collection and author context

The linked Project Gutenberg text places this poem in Harlem Shadows (1922), the collection closely associated with McKay’s place in the Harlem Renaissance. His biography and linked references give more context for the collection and its moment.

Source text: Harlem Shadows (1922) · Project Gutenberg. Further reading: all poems by Claude McKay · Academy of American Poets: Claude McKay · Poetry Foundation: Claude McKay.

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