Claude McKay’s speaker looks ahead from a cold, bare winter morning and pictures a future trip south with his love. The opening scene is chilly and still: leafless trees, white morning light, birds huddled under the eaves. But the poem quickly turns warm and vivid as he imagines a summer island with tall bamboo, smiling orchids, cotton trees, a clear stream, and the hum of bees. He doesn’t just want to visit—he wants to build a cottage there, surrounded by bluebells and ever-green ferns. The mood is tender and hopeful, part daydream and part promise. Winter becomes something to endure because the speaker holds onto this vision of a peaceful, colorful home shared with someone he loves. The poem feels like a quiet invitation to imagine a better, gentler place.
After the Winter — Summary
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 to 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.