Dawn in New York

From Off the Road Database

Bibliographic Information
Author McKay, Claude
Genre Poetry
Journal or Book Harlem Shadows
Publisher New York_Harcourt, Brace and Company
Year of Publication 1922
Pages 43
Additional information This poem also appeared under the title "To Work" in a different collection.


Dawn in New York

The Dawn! The Dawn! The crimson-tinted,
comes
Out of the low still skies, over the hills,
Manhattan's roofs and spires and cheerless domes!
The Dawn! My spirit to its spirit thrills.
Almost the mighty city is asleep,
No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping feet.
But here and there a few cars groaning creep
Along, above, and underneath the street,
Bearing their strangely-ghostly burdens by,
The women and the men of garish nights,
Their eyes wine-weakened and their clothes awry,
Grotesques beneath the strong electric lights.
The shadows wane. The Dawn comes to New
York.
And I go darkly-rebel to my work.

twilighturbancarcar metaphor