Joy in the Woods

By Claude McKay 1889–1948 Claude McKay

There is joy in the woods just now,

The leaves are whispers of song,

And the birds make mirth on the bough

And music the whole day long,

And God! to dwell in the town

In these springlike summer days,

On my brow an unfading frown

And hate in my heart always—

A machine out of gear, aye, tired,

Yet forced to go on—for I’m hired.

Just forced to go on through fear,

For every day I must eat

And find ugly clothes to wear,

And bad shoes to hurt my feet

And a shelter for work-drugged sleep!

A mere drudge! but what can one do?

A man that’s a man cannot weep!

Suicide? A quitter? Oh, no!

But a slave should never grow tired,

Whom the masters have kindly hired.

But oh! for the woods, the flowers

Of natural, sweet perfume,

The heartening, summer showers

And the smiling shrubs in bloom,

Dust-free, dew-tinted at morn,

The fresh and life-giving air,

The billowing waves of corn

And the birds’ notes rich and clear:—

For a man-machine toil-tired

May crave beauty too—though he’s hired.

Claude McKay, “Joy in the Woods” from Claude McKay: Complete Poems. Published by University of Illinois Press. Copyright © 2004 by Claude McKay. Courtesy of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Source: Claude McKay: Complete Poems (University of Illinois Press, 2004)

Biography

Festus Claudius McKay, better known as Claude McKay, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s. His work ranged from vernacular verse celebrating peasant life in Jamaica to fairly militant poems challenging white authority in America, and from generally straightforward tales of black life in both Jamaica and America to more philosophically ambitious fiction addressing . . .

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