Claude McKay, poems

If We Must Die.
I honestly and ashamed to be American sometimes when I look back in history.  This time frame in-particular where racism and ignorance was in full bloom.  I am glad to be alive in today's society where equality is alive, and forever will be.  I know that there are always going to be problems with judgment but it never should have been that bad.  No one should should have to feel as if they will die in vain, and like a hog.  This poem is so strong!  I love the end-  Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back.  People who were getting discriminated against were so strong and they had to be just to make it through a day.  And they fought till their final days.

A memory Of June.
This sounds like a love poem, but McKay is in love with the month of June. You could interpret it as June being a person, it uses a lot of personification if it is literally about the month of June.  The last line is adorable;  My soul takes leave of me to sing all day A love so fugitive ans so complete. 

The Barrier
The barrier of skin is an on-going struggle in our society.  There will always be minorities and superiors.  I feel that now there are even more barriers, the poor/ rich, gay/straight, men/women, children/elderly etc.   This poem is about looking past that exterior or skin color.  McKay understands that beauty is  only skin deep, but society doesn't agree with him in 1922. 

The Tired Worker
It is so crazy the things we take for granted these day.  Sleep is something most of us can just do whenever out schedule permits, we can nap for sleep for an entire night.  But we don't think much of it.  I have never been so physically exhausted to the point that ached.  This worker is weary and longs to sleep.   I love the line come tender sleep and fold me in thy breast.  It is such a sensual line, it makes me want to curl up and sleep right now.    I know the feeling of dreading the morning as this person does, but I really have no reason to dread it.  I wake up to nothing compared to what an oppressed person of the 1920s did.