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Wide Sargasso Sea

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BAPTISM BY CLAUDE MCKAY

Baptism
Claude McKay - 1889-1948

Into the furnace let me go alone;
Stay you without in terror of the heat.

I will go naked in—for thus 'tis sweet—
Into the weird depths of the hottest zone.
I will not quiver in the frailest bone,
You will not note a flicker of defeat;
My heart shall tremble not its fate to meet,
Nor mouth give utterance to any moan.
The yawning oven spits forth fiery spears;
Red aspish tongues shout wordlessly my name.
Desire destroys, consumes my mortal fears,
Transforming me into a shape of flame.

I will come out, back to your world of tears,
A stronger soul within a finer frame.

Going through the fire without getting burn. That is how we've always face racism and racist attitudes.
I've always loved this poem.

Last edited by Wide Sargasso Sea (May 30, 2022 11:38 am)

Dancer

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Re: BAPTISM BY CLAUDE MCKAY

' Baptism ' .     ....  Yeah Claude , you love  him eh ?

After reading the poem  , I thought of a  woman , or let's say , Claude was getting it on.

But I was not too comfortable  with my 'first impressions ' .  Racism and racist attitudes did not come to mind.
I was right, don't doubt  1st impressions.'

Mckay swung  both ways .

Wide Sargasso Sea

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Re: BAPTISM BY CLAUDE MCKAY

A woman's crotch is the heat??
       Really Dancer?
I supposed his use of such words
               like   
sweet
            quiver
                    tremble
moan

threw you off........

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Re: BAPTISM BY CLAUDE MCKAY

.......
Poetry is like music .... different notes
like a painter  ... different colors   
Its the Tone ,  WSS

>> In his essay 'Claude McKay Harlem Shadows ' Terence Hoagwood  explains  that McKay like Traditional sonnet  form  , because it was the best way to express his feelings ---
Instead of seeing the lines of the sonnet form as something that would restrict him  , Mckay saw them as a way to ' set his poetry free' <<

......See .... I beginning to like McKay.     .   .......( not   ... if i should die   ...one ) Lol,

Wide Sargasso Sea

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Re: BAPTISM BY CLAUDE MCKAY

The iambic pentameter rhythm is indeed stressed in the poem.

>>set his poetry free, eh?

in/TO the fur/NACE let /ME/ go a/LONE or A/LONE

To make the poem a sonnet one would have to read the word "alone" as A/LONE to get the 5 stresses.

Last edited by Wide Sargasso Sea (Jun 01, 2022 5:38 am)