Harlem Renaissance Poetry

The poem I chose to analyze was A Prayer by Claude McKay.

'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.

Mine eyes are open but they cannot see for gloom of night:
I can no more than lift my heart to thee for inward light.

The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul;
In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control.

For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death;
But this of me eternally must live, thy borrowed breath.

'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling. 

Imagery is major element in this piece of poetry. There is no clear visual image to be pictured, yet it touches our senses. With the line "I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling." Although there is a visualization of physical stumbling across the Earth, it remains a cloudy image with little details. Another example of this is, "I can more than lift my heart to thee for inward light." This line gives a visual image of a person lifting their head, yet the image is still unclear. The author through out this poem uses imagery in this way. Not being clear enough to the reader to mentally imagine, yet I believe that's the point he's trying to make. Since this is a Harlem Renaissance poem, we assume it has to do with racism or hardships of being black. I believe he uses the imagery the way he does to keep the reader in the dark or to not have the full understanding. In fact, there is no full understanding to it. Many things were unclear to the black people themselves as to why they were treated so differently. No one will ever completely understand what they went through, and in that case the poem keeps most of our senses still in the dark to emphasize our ignorant knowledge.

The author also uses sound devices of rhyming in the poem. For example at the end of each line the words rhyme with one another, "night" "light", "calling" "falling". I think the significance of rhyming in this way is to create a sense of with every line there is a response to follow up just like the end words have a certain response to the next end word. For example, "The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul; In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control." The first line the author is describing problem, then in the next line he is still referring to the problem yet now is turning to a higher being for a strength or solution. The author continues to use this sort of style through out the poem, and the words that rhyme together help keep the focuse on how those specific lines have to do with one another.

The word "passion" has an effect every time it is read. It gives off the understanding that there is an extreme caring about someone or something depending on what it is being referenced to. In the ninth line of this poem, McKay capitalizes the word "passion". He uses personification to give this specific word a human quality, he made the word become personal. "For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death;", by using this figure of speech for this specific word, the author is giving it a major meaning. He is referring to the American Dream here, there for he is also using symbolism. When people have a passion or dream, while it can give many pleasures if successful, it can also kill. For the amount of work and effort some people put into their dream or passion, it is almost as if it becomes their higher being. Where they pour their prayers into, in hopes of creating what they've set out to do or become. Yet, with every life or moment, there is a or ending, like death is an ending. This dream or passion will bring an end, an end which no prayer can stop.