Claude McKay

Here you will find the Poem The Tropics of New York of poet Claude McKay

The Tropics of 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,

Sat in the window, bringing memories
 of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical skies
 In benediction over nun-like hills.

My eyes grow 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.