1. After the Winter By: Claude Mckay
Anastasia Parks

3. Information about McKay
Jamaican-American writer and poet
At seven years old Mckay was sent to live with his brother to get the best education
Mckay started to write poetry at the age of ten
In 1977 Mckay was named National Poet
He sometimes wrote about social and political concerns that he had

4. Structure of Poem 2 stanzas 16 lines End rhyme Ballad
Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
     And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
     Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
     Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
     And wide-mouthed orchids smile.
And we will seek the quiet hill
     Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
     And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
     Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
     And ferns that never fade.
2 stanzas
16 lines
End rhyme
Ballad

5. Speaker of Poem
The speaker could be McKay talking about when he moved from Jamaica to America and had to begin a new life.

6. Literary elements Personification- when animals, or
objects are given human qualities.
Imagery- gives images of some lines
in a poem.
End Rhyme- the last words in the end
Of each line rhyme

7. IMAGERY “And we will build a cottage there, beside and open glade”
Connection might be that this might be the house he wants

8. Imagery “Some day, when the trees have shed their leaves
And against the mornings white”
Connection might be that the
speaker is staring over.

9. Literal meaning
The literal meaning in this poem is that seasons change.

10. Figurative Meaning
The first stanza represents the process from when they were young to when they age.
The second stanza represents an afterlife that’s never ending.

11. Authors Purpose
McKay was showing that everything will age, his purpose was to show a life cycle.

12. Theme
The theme of this poem is that everything eventually grows old and passes on.

13. Websites Used