Constab Ballads

by Claude McKay

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Jamaican-born American writer Claude McKay figured prominently in the Harlem renaissance of the 1920s; his works include collections of poetry, such as Constab Ballads (1912), and novels, including Home to Harlem (1928).

Home to Harlem, a best-seller, won Festus Claudius McKay, a poet and a seminal figure, the Harmon gold award for literature.
He also wrote novels Banjo and Banana Bottom . People not yet published his manuscript, called Amiable with Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem , of 1941.
McKay also authored collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, Gingertown . He authored two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home and My Green Hills of Jamaica , published posthumously. He entitled a non-fiction, socio-historical treatise Harlem: Negro Metropolis . People published his poetry collection, Harlem Shadows , in 1922 among the first books during the Harlem renaissance. Survivors published his Selected Poems posthumously in 1953.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Claude McKay's "If We Must Die" is an important poem that deals with the experiences of Black Americans confronting racism and violence. Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer (murdered by Israel in 2023) famously adapted it into a poem about Palestinian struggles against racism and violence at the hands of their Zionist oppressors. As when reading the works of George Jackson and the Black Panthers, it is clear that there is much overlap between the struggles of the Palestinians in historic Palestine and the Black person in the Americas, especially the United States.

This is what drew me to McKay, and this poem is very moving. The other poems in this collection fail to move me in the same way. There are some wonderful lines here and there, but neither the style nor substance speak to me. Perhaps added to this is the challenge of reading through the Jamaican dialect (McKay was Jamaican-American; born in Jamaica, died in Chicago and an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance). More interesting from a historical or sociological perspective than a literary one, it may benefit me to explore more of McKay's prose and less of his poetry.