Which author wrote The Tropics In New York?

• A. Langston Hughes
• B. Walt Whitman
• C. Claude McKay
• D. Richard Wright

Answer: (C)

This question tests author identification for a Harlem Renaissance poem. The Tropics in New York presents the speaker’s sensory longing for the homeland—the tropical fruits, scents, and warmth—while standing in a bustling New York street. That Caribbean-inflected voice and theme of exile are hallmarks of Claude McKay, a Jamaican-born poet prominent in the Harlem Renaissance who frequently foregrounded Caribbean imagery and the ache of distance from home. Other writers from or associated with the era have different emphases: Langston Hughes often centers on urban Black life in Harlem, but the specific tropical imagery and homesickness here point to McKay. Whitman’s expansive, catalog-driven style and Wright’s later realist portrayals of race don’t fit the poem’s lyric, homeland-longing mood. Claude McKay is the author.