McKay, Claude (1890–1948) McKay died in Chicago on 22 May 1948. dialect poetry rooted in the island's folk culture During this period McKay wrote poetry and became increasingly involved with political and literary radicals. McKay's political associations led him to England, where he began writing for British Socialist Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers' Dreadnought. While there, his third volume of poetry, Spring in New Hampshire (1920), was published. n August 1912 under the pretext of studying agriculture, McKay migrated to the United States to advance his poetic career. He studied at Tuskegee Institute and Kansas State College, but by mid-1914, McKay abandoned the study of farming and moved to New York City. In 1928, while still in France, McKay published Home to Harlem. Achieving widespread acclaim, Home to Harlem is McKay's most read novel and is often studied within the context of the Harlem Renaissance. His second novel, Banjo (1929), is a commentary on colonialism that focuses on the lives of an international cast of drifters living on the Marseilles waterfront. In 1932, having moved to Morocco, McKay published Gingertown, a collection of short stories alternately set in Jamaica and the United States. In 1933 he published his final novel, Banana Bottom, a romantic tale set in Jamaica that explores both individual and cultural conflict between colonizing and folk forces. Neither book sold well, however. In 1934, seriously ill and improverished, McKay returned to the United States, where he remained until his death in 1948. During these years McKay struggled to produce more literary works but had difficulty finding publishers; he did, however, write numerous articles for a variety of journals. During these years McKay struggled to produce more literary works but had difficulty finding publishers; he did, however, write numerous articles for a variety of journals. In 1944 McKay converted to Catholicism. During the last years of his life he completed an autobiography of his youth titled My Green Hills of Jamaica (1979) and compiled a collection of his poetry for Selected Poems of Claude McKay (1953). When McKay left the Soviet Union, he unknowingly embarked upon a decade of unsettled travel throughout Europe and Africa. The poem talks about fruit and how things used to be when he was well nourished. laden- filled with a great quantity benediction-blessing: the act of praying for divine protection -- used to describe quantinty and the amount of blessing. a great want for the past. And, hungry for the old, familiar ways- i chose this line because it brings the reader to acknowldgement of longging to return. it talks about how great things used to be but no longer are. Both poems are very descriptive as well as details with an approach of intuition. They are similar through how detailed each poem is. They are different through there length and subjects. I enjoyed "courage"better because it seems as if it were a harder struggle for him.