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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2. alligator pears: avocados, tropical fruits. All the foods mentioned in this stanza grow in Jamaica, the Caribbean island where the poet was born.


6. rills: streams; brooks.


8. 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