America by Claude Mckay
1. In the context of this poem, what makes America unique? Cite evidence from this text, your own experience, and other literature, art, or history in your answer.
2. During the time of the Jim Crow Laws, many black American’s struggled with the idea of living in the “land of the free” but being denied basic human rights. How does McKay’s poem “America” reflect this experience?
This is the poem :
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth. Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me strength erect against her hate, Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood. Yet, as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred Of terror, malice,1 not a word of jeer.2 Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.
