The Tropics in New York



Claude McKay










Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,



Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,°



And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,



Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,









5 Set in the window, bringing memories



Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,



And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies



In benediction° over nun-like hills.









My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;



10 A wave of longing through my body swept,



And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,



I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.













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1. alligator pears: avocados, tropical fruits. All the foods mentioned in this stanza grow in Jamaica, the Caribbean island where the poet was born.
   
   
   
2. rills: streams; brooks.
   
   
   
3. benediction: blessing.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

The speaker of this poem is remembering —

A

a place where he used to live

C

where to buy some fruit

B

how hungry he is

D

going to church to pray