In Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows, “The Tired Worker” and “Dawn in New York” are pieces of a continuous story about an exhausted worker finding inspiration from his peers and starting a political rebellion in New York.
In “The Tired Worker”, the speaker embraces the night because they are finally done with work, and they can “rest thy tired hands and aching feet” (line 8). In “Dawn in New York”, the day begins anew in the sleeping city with “No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping feet” (line 6). The speaker longs for the peaceful night and claims it as their own then celebrates the quiet morning before urgent work begins. This worker does not miss bustling crowds of other underrecognized and overworked people.
Both sonnets contain an element of personification with a wine-red Dawn interrupting the clouds. At first, the speaker clings to sleep while “dreaded dawn” “steals out the gray clouds red like wine” (lines 11-12). Later, the Dawn, “crimson-tinted, comes / Out of the low still skies”, and the people’s eyes are “wine-weakened and their clothes awry” (lines 1-2 and 11). The speaker is surrounded by other workers who have spent the night indulging in vices to escape the burdens of the day. Upon seeing fellow workers, this person comes to the conclusion that they must fight back against the oppressors who have a claim on “the wretched day” (line 9). The wine-weak people are a reminder of hidden suffering within the city. The oppressive Dawn is stealing time from the oppressed, cloudy-sky workers. This realization leads to the speaker seizing the opportunity to rebel in the Dawn.
Two lines perfectly encapsulate the speaker’s growth between the sonnets: “Once again the harsh, the ugly city” (line 14) and “Almost the mighty city is asleep” (line 5). The worker resents New York in the first sonnet because the city lets suffering go on without interruption. New York is unaware (or uncaring) of its inhabitants living within the shadows. Under the dark of night, workers can be free, but “strong electric lights” reveal their grotesque nature in the morning (line 12). Although the people seem hidden at night, their transgressions are revealed to the speaker, and when Dawn returns, workers are forced to resume their exhausting routines.
Although both sonnets are Shakespearean in nature, “Dawn in New York” ends in a slant rhyme instead of a perfect couplet. This oddity hints at conflict within the story. The speaker breaks the cycle to “darkly-rebel to [their] work” (line 14). This work is not part of the worker’s mundane, ordinary schedule (which is emphasized by the slanted rhyme rebelling against the typical sonnet form). Here, the speaker is leaving the shadows to reclaim power and defy societal norms. Like McKay, this speaker is going to fight the segregation and oppression that plagues New York.
~Miki Chroust
Introduction to Poetry 