Jenni King mod 1 even Claude was the youngest of 11 children McKay's parents were farmers He began to write poems at the age of 10 In 1906, he entered a trade school McKay eventually became an editor at The Liberator McKay had moved to Morocco in 1930 His financial situation forced him to return to the United States in 1934 In 1914 a financial gift from Jekyll enabled him to move to New York, where he invested in a restaurant and married his childhood sweetheart, 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. The meaning of this poem is someone talking about the night time in New York. It shows a lot of imagery by discussing how the city of Manhattan lights up at night. POV – 1st person Tone – clam/relaxed “The Dawn! The Dawn!” – Repetition “My spirit to its spirit thrills” – Hyperbole “the mighty city is asleep” – personification “No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping feet” – imagery “garish nights” – imagery “Their eyes wine-weakened” – hyperbole “the strong electric lights” http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets /m_r/mckay/life.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_McKa y