Comparing and contrasting poems - Essay Example

On the other hand, Claude McKay was born in another century, in 1890. He was a Jamaican who immigrated to America at the age of twenty three. Claude McKay is famous for his more of a renegade style that talks about liberation and equality for the oppressed minorities of America. While Morales’ poem instigates your mind to realize and acknowledge the ethnic and racial diversity in America, McKay’s poem truly brings forth the Harlem Renaissance where he embraces and denounces America at the same time.

Hence, both poems are similar because of the immigrant blood both poets possess, yet different in the way they deal with this. The form of “Child of the Americas” and “America” by Morales and McKay respectively, differs. “Child of the Americas” has a very ambiguous form that also depicts the confusion of the poet. The first stanza is composed of eight lines while the following two are of six lines each. The poem ends with a single, sure line that comes after a couplet. “America,” on the other hand, is written in the format of a sonnet with three quatrains and a concluding couplet.

Both poets although squabbling with the entity that is America, are proud of who they are. Their American identity as a colored person is something they cherish and acknowledge. While Morales speaks “English with passion,” McKay loves “this cultured hell.” McKay opines that although life in America is tough especially when one has to face segregation on the basis of race, he still loves this country because it makes him grow tough and resilient. And although it is a huge country compared to his smallness or the minority of his race, but still it makes him strong enough to be a rebel and stand up to its oppression.

Morales and McKay are similar in their poetic expression: Morales has used the impersonation technique to symbolize different ethnicities as an American whereas Claude McKay has personified America as almost equivalent to a