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After the Winter, Claude McKay
Meditation
Hope. Refuge. A common purpose. This lively poem is a love poem of promise and of delight in nature. The rhythm and imagery glow with the warmth of springtime, blossoming in a sense of hope and expectation. While the shivering birds find a makeshift shelter, the lovers dream of a cottage beside an open glade, a permanent refuge in warmer climes. But is this a deferred hope? Claude McKay begins, “Some day.” When will that day come? When will we launch out to seek the quiet hill upon which we may build a cottage beneath the towering cotton tree? What prevents us from turning our faces southward to begin?
Todd Breyfogle, Denver, Colorado
