By: Erica Greco

“The Lynching”By: ClaudeMcKay

Background Information Born in Jamaica on

September 15 1889, the youngest of 11 children; died in may 22, 1948

Suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease

Abandoned his lifelong agnosticism and embraced Catholicism

Wrote such classics as Harlem Shadows, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, My Green Hills of Jamaica, Banana Bottom, and The Negroes in America

He is considered as the "foremost left-wing black intellectual of his age”

Influenced black authors including James Baldwin and Richard Wright.

The Lynching His spirit in smoke ascended to high

heaven.

His father, by the cruelest way of pain,

Had bidden him to his bosom once again;

The awful sin remained still unforgiven.

All night a bright and solitary star

(perchance the one that ever guided him,

Yet gave him up at last to fate's wild whim)

Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.

Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view

The ghastly body swaying in the sun

The women thronged to look, but never a one

Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;

And little lads, lynchers that were to be,

Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.

By: Claude McKay

Analysis:• Lynching is defined as

murder for supposed crime: to seize somebody believed to have committed a crime and put him or her to death immediately and without trial• The title of this work

speaks for itself, it tells of a story of a man who is lynched for a “awful sin” that of which is not named and ethnicity untold. Lynching was common in the 1920’s but most people were killed only because of their skin color

Factoids:

• Not only African Americas were lynched but white men were as well. Lynching was a tool that mobs (like the KKK) used for the persecution of blacks and most people in pursuit of integration rights were killed, making it a racist and politically incorrect punishment

Title:Purpose

Connotation

Attitude

Shifts

Title (2)

Theme

• The poem shows the racial injustice in the 19th century for African Americans, it shows the true feelings of the community when someone is lynched and how there is no compassion for any of the victims

• It goes from the peacefulness of ascending to heaven to be with his father to the sorrow-less women and the children who dance around his body, “fiendish glee”.

Analysis:

Title

Purpose:Connotation

Attitude

Shifts

Title (2)

Theme

Analysis: Poetic Devices• “high heaven” is an example of

alliteration• “night a bright” is an example of

rhyme• “fate's wild whim” is not only

personification but is alliteration too

• “little lads, lynchers” is an example of alliteration

• “eyes of steely blue” is an example of imagery

TitlePurpose

Connotation:Attitude

Shifts

Title (2)

Theme

Analysis:

The attitude or tone of the poem starts out very peaceful and spiritual but then turns sad and distressed, because even though the man was rising up to heaven where his body remained was being desecrated and destroyed by an angry mob. And because of the awful and violent ways they treat the body the assumption could be made that the man was African American

TitlePurpose

Connotation

Attitude:Shifts

Title (2)

Theme

Analysis:• The poem is arranged in an ABBA

formation• The title of the poem remains the

same and recalls of a tale of a man lynched for his crimes

• The theme of The Lynching is to tell the reader of the time in which Claude lived and what circumstances there were for people who committed crimes in this time whether white or black

TitlePurpose

Connotation

Attitude

Shifts:

Title (2):

Theme: