February 8, 2010.
Claude McKay was born in Clarendon, Jamaica in 1889. He published his first book of verse in 1912 entitled, "Songs of Jamaica". He died in 1948. *A note on the text: a parish, in Jamaica, is akin to a county here in the States.
The Tropics in New York
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
In benediction over nun-like hills.
My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
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