Analysis Of The White City Mckay

While reading this poem line-by-line and looking deeper into the history of Mckay’s lifetime i discovered that this poem is about an African-American man entering the city and leaving behind segregation. The speaker in this poem is an African-American male who has went through hardships throughout his life one major hardship being segregation This poem was written during the Harlem Renaissance which was a time period that many African-Americans moved from the south to new york city and other places up north this movement happened right after world war one. The Harlem Renaissance gave African-American writers the chance to publish some of their writings. Mckay was born on September 15, 1890 who got an early start on his writing by blending his african pride with his love for british poetry, he studied poetry

and philosophy with englishman Walter Jekyll, who encouraged him to begin producing poetry in his own Jamaican dialect. During this time he wrote one of his most known pieces “If We Must Die” this poem threatened retaliation for racial prejudice and abuse. Later on Mckay wrote an essay collection “Harlem:Negro Metropolis” which offers observations and analysis of African-American community in Harlem at the time.

Mckay died of a heart attack on May 22, 1984.

The Rhyme Scheme of “The White City” is an abab cdcd efef gg. This poem is a sonnet which is a 14 line poem with a variable rhyme scheme traditionally reflects upon a single sentiment with a clarification or turn of though in its concluding lines. Contrast imagery and the sonnet form to express his steadfast hatred of the white man and segregation as well as emphasizing his love of the city itself despite its associations with his overwhelming “whiteness”. This poem also uses Juxtaposition which contrasts the white mist with the speaker’s passion, heaven with hell, light with darkness, and noble love with secretive love. The overall theme of the poem is a black man's struggles however the tone is choleric because the speakers past describes his annoyance with the rest of the world. I choose this poem because i feel like this is still a touchy subject that is often not looked at. When had laws made to better the life of African-American citizens and some laws worked like ending slavery and so on but in other way i feel like some things were left out as African-Americans are life is

already hard because most of us grow up in households with one parent, low income, and many children. Which meant things were scarce so we only had the bare minimum however in white households it was pretty normal to have both parents raise you with a lot of money in a nice house sitting back and looking pretty. Back in the times of slavery those African-Americans had nothing they didn't know were half of their family was or were their belongs were because they lost everything they owned to become salves and be sold to other rich white families. Now that it’s against the law to slave our community is making a comeback we are able to make money so we can have a stable home for our family and plenty of food on the table. With all that being said i choose this poem not only to express what it was like for African-Americans but to give hope that we have a better and brighter future ahead of us and we never have to go through anymore hardships like we did. Reading this poem really opened my eyes for what life was like for them we have had so many better days since then and more better days are yet to come people like Claude Mckay and other’s who stood up for the black community will forever be cherished and remembered for what they did for other African-American lives.