Caroling Dusk/America

by Claude McKay

For other versions of this work, see America (McKay).

AMERICA^[1]

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,Stealing my breath of life, I will confessI 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 shredOf terror, malice, not a word of jeer.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.Claude McKay

1. From “Harlem Shadows” by Claude McKay, Copyright 1922, by Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc.