Claude McKay

“I know the dark delight of being strange,The loneliness of wisdom among fools”

“The shivering birds beneath the eavesHave sheltered for the night.”

“The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.”

“Oh, I must keep my heart inviolateAgainst the potent poison of your hate.”

“If we must die, O let us nobly die,Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!”

“Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!”

“The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,I knew her self was not in that strange place.”

“Deep in the secret chambers of my heartI bear it nobly as I live my part.”

“I have forgotten much, but still rememberThe poinsettia's red, blood-red in warm December.”

“Oh some I know! I have embalmed the days,At noon and evening in the flame-heart’s shade.”

“Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”

“And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.”