Broken Hope

A pale purple iris

on a broken stem

hidden under a leaf

By: Kazue Matsuda

Upon reading this haiku, I envisioned a dejected image of a dying iris with a broken stem being covered by, not just a leaf, but debris and aftermath of a bomb. Upon returning to Hiroshima after being held in an internment camp with her two children, Matsuda found her parents home to be demolished due to an atomic bomb. Knowing this, the image portrayed from this haiku appears sorrowful and broken, similarly to the place she once called home. 

As Matsuda returned to America after schooling in Japan briefly, she was thrown into an internment camp with her two children before being sent back to Japan in 1946. With a grueling life in an internment camp, encountering death, being caged in, controlled, and living with little food and water, it is reasonable to assume she may have felt a sense of hope when finding out she and her children would be returning to Japan. Upon returning to chaos and war, that hope may have depleted. 

The poem refers to an iris flower which typically represents hope and strength. Envisioning this iris being broken, dead, and hidden under debris, the hope of returning to Japan safe is captured by the broken iris. The iris in this haiku represents the loss of hope and strength as she leaves the internment camp, only to return to her parents demolished home. The iris (hope) itself was broken, while simultaneously her strength was hidden under the debris of the aftermath from the bomb in Hiroshima. This haiku captures the emotions that were likely felt while living life in an internment camp. Not only felt by Matsuda, but also many other internees that were imprisoned during this time. 

Sarah Rix

The Inevitable Struggle

Being in the working class and knowing how dreadful it is, I understand why McKay feels this way. Being a black man around that time working for people that do not see you as equal is even worse, but you have no choice. In these two poems “Outcast” and “The Tired Worker”, both represent hopelessness and the despair that comes with all of the hard labor that a working class citizen endures. So yes, I agree that McKay’s “Outcast” represents the hopelessness and despair of the working class speaker in “The Tired Worker”.

McKay starts this representation of hopelessness and despair with “The Tired Worker” by describing the tiring aftermath of a long day of work. Starting with line 1-2, McKay says “O whisper, O my soul! The afternoon/ Is waning into evening, whisper soft!”, most people get off work late and lose their whole day just like McKay. He then reiterates that in line 9, “The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine;”, like he wants to enjoy some of his own time just like others got to do during the day. McKay also describes how he feels after work, in line 8 “To rest thy tired hands and aching feet.”. McKay uses rhymes throughout the sonnet to let the reader gain a better feel about his emotions. McKay also uses question marks and exclamation points because he feels dreadful and hopelessness within himself. 

Then looking at McKay’s poem, “Outcast”, he gives the representation of what it is to be like the speaker in “The Tired Worker”. In this poem McKay focuses on how he is lost within himself. McKay uses the pronoun “I” in order to focus on the speaker. McKay also talks about how things in the world are holding him back from other things in life. For example in lines 6-9 “ But the great western world holds me in fee, / And I may never hope for full release/ While to its alien gods I bend my knee./ Something in me is lost, forever lost,” making it known that he is not himself when he has to give everything to this “western world”, his working class job. Being a black man during this time, you had no other choice but to give your all to the “western world”, in order to survive. In McKay’s last line he said “Under the white man’s menace, out of time”, ending with this line creates the tone for both sonnets. Working under people who do not see you as equal is not only degrading but also makes him feel the hopelessness and despair described in both sonnets.

Joseph Jordan

The Struggle Is Real

“The Tired Worker” tells a story of a tiring, nonstop lifestyle of a person whose every day life consists of providing with the little income they have. Similarly, “Outcast” describes the inner thoughts of a worker who shows awareness of being under the control of ‘the western world’, more specifically the big multimillion companies that ‘run’ the country. Both these poems tell the same story but from a different perspective because the central points lead back to the common man that feels they have no control of the world around them. Rather, they bring light to the reality of being caught up in a system they must follow without question just so they can provide and survive in society. Claude McKay’s poems “Outcast” and “The Tired Worker” both go hand in hand in relaying a very powerful message of what it means to feel hopelessness and despair. in a typical working class where no amount of accumulated money can bring comfort or relief.

Throughout “The Tired Worker”, the character uses many exclamation points to display frustration to the audience of how exhausting their every day life is. People don’t willingly focus their every day lives on working, its the helplessness of making money so they can ensure comfortable survival that forces them to stick with this cruel routine. McKay does a very good job in communicating this message because the first person point of view allows readers to step into this individual’s shoes and see the world with their lens. “Outcast’ was filled with various metaphors for the reader to pick through in order to truly understand the message of ‘hopelessness’. In the poem, McKay brings up “the western world” (Line 6) to explain why there is desperation and exhaustion, and who is actually responsible. To readers like me, the western world symbolizes the large companies who’s main focus relies on modernizing the world to make the most amount of money. Ideally, these companies hope to one day achieve globalization and make immense profit in the long run. In all of this chaos, common workers like those in “The Tired Worker” and “Outcast” get left behind or don’t receive the credit they deserve. They helped bring those companies to where they are today, and where they will be in the future, but unfortunately they all get neglected.

Claude McKay’s poems agree with the hopelessness and despair workers feel.

Simranpreet Kaur

Living under people’s shadows

Claude McKay presents us with two great poems “Outcast” and “The Tired Worker”, both of these poems give similar ideas but do not directly relate to each other. I can see how “Outcast” can represent the hopelessness of a tired worker. The poem “The Tired Worker” talks about the physical pain that a person is going through due to harsh working conditions which may include working for several hours and possibly no breaks. In line 8 it says “To rest thy hands and aching feet”. This line allows us readers to assume that this person has been working for a long time for their hands and feet to be tired and in pain. In lines 9-10 it says “The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine;/Come tender sleep, and fold me to thy breast”. This line suggests that this worker is seeking the chance to sleep and they describe the day as “wretched” suggesting that the day may have been miserable to them due to work. They mention that the night is theirs which can indicate that the night is theirs because that is when they are able to finally rest. Sleep may be their only way to escape from their wretched days. The “Outcast” poem talks about being lost and a sense of being trapped. In line 7 it says “And I may never hope for a full release”. This line could potentially mean that the tired worker does not know when he will be free of working. In line 5 it says “I would go back to darkness and to peace,”. This can be suggesting that the worker would have hope that his way of life would change but at times maybe he wasn’t so hopeful because of how miserable it was. The last line says “Under the white mans menace, out of time.”. This line makes me think that the worker is working for a white man who has power over them, making the white man dangerous or a threat. They mention being out of time, possibly not being able to change their way of life or not being able to be free from it. Line 11 says “And I must walk the way of life a ghost”. The worker may be thinking that he is like a ghost, unseen and living under the shadows of others. The worker perceives himself to be living under the shadow of the white man which shows this sense of hopelessness. The tired worker feels as if they will never be free from their living conditions.

– Katherine Deras

Same Structure Different Struggles

The poems “Outcast” and “The Tired Worker” both written by Claude McKay do appear to share some very specific parallels, which relate to the overall meaning of both of these works. Each of these poems represents a sense of unfairness or struggle that McKay personally experienced throughout his lifetime. “The Tired Worker” is a piece that focuses on the harsh life of a working-class citizen at that time and how overworked each person was. With lines such as “To rest thy tired hands and aching feet” (line 8) it is clear that McKay was trying to convey the struggles of everyday working people during a time where bylaws were not yet made in which workers were protected and treated humanely. In comparison the poem “Outcast” also speaks about the mistreatment the author experienced, however this time it was not for his employment as a working class citizen but instead as a black man in the United States.

McKay’s poem “Outcast” does represent the hopelessness and despair of that time, however instead of hearing it from the perspective of an overworked and underpaid middle class worker it is from a black man who is constantly persecuted in a foreign land. The quote that best supports this claim can be found in the last line of the poem stating “Under the white man’s menace, out of time”(line 14), which specifies the segregation and racism present at that time. Although the meanings of these poems may be different the structure of these works do appear to be the same, since there are 14 lines present in both works with a rhyme scheme of iambic pentameter and a one stanza foundation. Both of these poems being a sonnet may be one of the only common factors but it does greatly contribute to the overall effect of each poem.

Jamey Cain

The Tired College Student

By Randy Hernandez

One whispers, when is school over

My brain is weary of the sleepless nights.

Spring semester is coming

But at last finals week is upon me,

I dread the week of hell and stress.

One must be patient to get rid of this week.

My tired brain will get a break after 

To my brain sorry but we must suffer,

We must Indore finals, essays, presentations, 

Sleepless nights, showerless nights and coffee.

Please come break, take me home 

I’m tired! I’m tired! I need rest please, 

Eye bags as dark as the night, Professors pity me! I’m stressed!

No! Another dreaded semster of torture my brain gets no rest.

Review

When First looking at all the different poems I could choose from the sonnet poems stuck out to me the most. I wasn’t too familiar with this style of poems and it was really interesting to learn about them in class. I had no clue at all that there were two different forms of sonnets which I know now to be the Shakespearean sonnets and the Petrarchan sonnets. This helped me set my mind on wanting to do poetic imitation or parody of the many sonnets gone over in class. When actually looking at the different sonnets I started to look through the Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows poems and I looked over his poem called “The Tired Worker” a poem in which was debated in class. When first analyzing this poem I did see how the worker in this poem is stuck in an endless loop and this idea of feeling hopeless through the poem. For some reason I started to think of school in such a way of this endless loop of repetition and at times feeling hopeless throughout the school year. Granted I do recognize the key difference of the tired worker being an actual social class issue which is more serious than a student having to go through college. This doesn’t mean students aren’t going through a lot of mental strain and school also having a physical toll on students. In my poem I try to relate this idea of  repetition and having to endure hopeless many times during the school year. In the tried worker the speaker is someone who has no choice but to wake up early in the morning everyday and is forced to work in the day. For a student one has the choice to continue school or be done with it, I do acknowledge the key differences between the two matters. In all I do believe there is some key relationships between a college student and the speaker in this poem. I hope my poem is able to recognize this idea of how at times being a student is just horrible and can be both physically and mentally draining for young people. There are students out there who are forced to wake up early in the morning and must dread the same sky the speaker mentions in the poem. I think being able to connect the speaker of the “The Tired Worker” to a college student of any student for that matter is able to engage a modern audience at this time and can be seen as a medium. I believe this topic is something many people can relate, especially young people who are walking the life of a college student in this modern time in the same way the poem by Claude McKay is able to reach a broad audience of the working class at the time.

Having hope in the hopelessness

Emanuel Jimenez

Does McKay’s “Outcast” represents the hopelessness and despair of the working-class speaker in “The Tired Worker.”?

I believe that Mckay’s “Outcast” truly does represents the hopelessness and despair of the working class speaker in “The Tired Worker”. First and for most there is a relation in the titles of these poems. A tired worker will most likely be an outcast. Not necessarily an outcast that has been exiled by society, or any harsh degree of any kind. But rather an Outcast in social events with friends or family. An Outcast to himself, because the speaker is so tired after working all day. During the Summer I worked full time as a cashier in Home Depot. I would be so tired that I would give away items for free but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. I would be so tired from working 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, that I wouldn’t do anything other than work and sleep. I was becoming an outcast from my own life because I would no longer hang out with my friends nor visit my family because I was so tired. All I would do everyday was literally work and sleep.

Other than the obvious relation between the two titles, there is a lot of textual evidence that over laps the same general idea. For example the final two lines on both poems both overlap the same idea. In other words, they talk about two different things that coincide with each other.

“The Tired Worker” last two lines read,

Weary my veins, my brain, my life, – have pity! No! Once again the hard, the ugly city

The last two lines in “Outcast” read,

For I was born, far from my native clime,
Under the white man’s menace, out of time.

The lines from “The Tired Worker” talk about a pitiful life in a dreadful city. The lines from “Outcast” talk about a man being born away from his culture. Under the shadow of the white man, out of his time. Using historical context we know that Claude McKay is an African American himself. Which adds even more correlation between these finals lines. He was born in a city where the majority of people are were white. He was distant from his native culture. The poem “Outcast” definitely represents the hopelessness and the despair of the worker-class speaker in “The Tired Worker”

Neutral

Reading both poems by Claude McKay I see how both these poems not only speak on hopelessness and despair of what they are going through regarding their origins and race. The poems for me give me and understanding of not only coming to terms with their positions in life, but as well as the poems helped each other only enforce the struggles that many faced during those times.

In the poem “The Tired Worker” there seems to be more of an understanding of their role in a new environment and how they are first blind to how disadvantaged one can be if they are different, “from out its misty veil will swing aloft! Be patient, weary body, soon the night will wrap thee gently in her stable sheet” (lines 4-7). In sociology the veil introduced by W. E. B. Du Bois, the veil was the separation of whites and blacks, which lead to blacks seeing how they were being affected but the whites were unaware of the veil so they couldn’t see what the hardships that many blacks faced after slavery (or even during). You see this in the remaining lines of the poem “weary my veins, my brain, my life! Have pity! No! Once again the harsh, the ugly city” (13-14). The understanding of the poem at the end at a harsh life that he comes to terms with because that’s how society has deemed them to be exposed to.

In the poem “Outcast” touching upon as I understand the origins that he came from that gave him strength, “my soul would sing forgotten jungle songs I would go back to darkness and to peace” (5-6). This almost forgotten origin that reminded him of who he was even though where he has come to be is forcing him to forget that origin “but the great western world holds me in fee, and I may never hope for full release” (7-8). This hopelessness of having to be forced into a world that he doesn’t feel welcomed is felt through this poem as he struggles with his origins and how he isn’t free to be himself or think of the origins.

I would say both these poems complement each other nicely, so I wouldn’t know which to choose from. I believe I am neutral when looking at both these poems that contain almost a continuation of each other that enforce this notion of hopelessness.

Maria Mendiola

The life you can’t escape

In the sonnet “The Tired Worker” by Claude McKay, he is basically letting us into the life of a person in the working class. In lines 5-6 McKay states “Be pattens, weary body, soon the night/ Will wrap thee gently in her sable sheet,”, it seem to show how tired the person speaking is and how they look forward to nighttime because that’s when they’re able to go home and actually rest their tired body. I feel as if the person speaking is somewhat miserable and just tired of working the job they have but they have no other choice but to do so. Its as is the people they work for stole something from them and they can’t get it back because they need to work to live. For example, in line 9 it states “The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine;”. During the day they must endure the labor and whatever they have to do at work, at night is when they get to rest away all their tiredness cause by work. Even when they get home and they look forward to resting, they hate that they have to get up once again in the morning and live in the same cycle.

Similarly, the sonnet “Outcast” also included the speaker that is tired of working and basically wished they were “free”. Line 5 mentions “I would go back to darkness and to peace”. This is very similar to “The Tired Worker” in which when it was nighttime, they got to rest. Other parts of the poem further add to how tired to speaker is of working and how miserable they are.

I feel as if the sonnet form in both poems somewhat limits these poems because McKay has to fit so much meaning into 14 lines. But on the other hand, the words he decided to rhyme together, somewhat highlights even more what he chooses to emphasize in the sonnets.

Both sonnets show how being born into the working class is a life of just trying to survive. Even though one is miserable, they can’t just quit their job because they have to provide for their family or even just for themselves. I think the outcast does further add to the working class speaker in “The Tired Worker” and represents their hopelessness and despair.

NO ESCAPE

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez

McKay’s “Outcast” represents the hopelessness and despair of the working class speaker in “The Tired Worker”. The sonnet, Outcast, talks about feeling trapped in racist America with a tone of longing for better. The speaker wishes to be where his ancestors lives, only then would he feel free. He states, “something in me is lost, forever lost, some vital thing has gone out of my heart”(3). This line clearly illustrates feeling of despair. This is a full representation of how African Americans felt in the weatern world.

In “The tired worker”, the speaker expresses the same feelings of being trapped. The sonnet is about an exhausted worker that is thinking about the end of the work day. He wants to be released so that his body can finally rest. There is a lot of exclamation marks which work well to express the strong feelings on the subject.

Both poems talk about desire for something better. The poem “outcast” clearly shows why the working class speaker feels the way he does. Even though the speaker tries to look on the bright side of the situation, he ends up accepting his misfortune. 

Some may argue that the poem “Outcast” doesn’t represent the hopelessness and despair of the poem “The working class”. They belive that there is a lot more self motivation on “The working class” sonnet, but we can clearly see that those feelings of hope disappear by the end of the poem. They are both filled with feelings of being trapped with no hope of escaping. The only thing to do is to imagine and dream about being somewhere else, but in the end they are made to face reality.