To the White Fiends from <ref target="http://harlemshadows.org">Harlem Shadows: A Digital Edition</ref>
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December 6, 2015
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This file is generated from a master file containing the text of Claude McKay's 1922 collection of poems Harlem Shadows and related documents (other appearances of McKay's poems, reviews, and related material). The base text for this file is drawn from the item listed below.
Claude McKay
To the White Fiends
Pearson's Magazine
September, 1918
276
To the White Fiends
To the White Fiends
Think ye I am not fiend and savage too?
Think ye I could not arm me with a gun
And shoot down ten of you for every one
Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you?
Be not deceived, for every deed ye do
I could match—out-match: am I not Afric's son,
Black of that black land where black deeds are done?
But the Almighty from the darkness drew
My soul and said: Even thou shalt be a light
Awhile to burn on the benighted earth,
Thy dusky face I set among the white
For thee to prove thyself of highest worth;
Before the world is swallowed up in night,
To show thy little lamp; go forth, go forth!