The Dance
Heel and toe, heel and toe,That is the song we sing;Turn to your partner and curtsey low,Balance and forward and swing.Corners are draughty and meadows are white,This is the game for a winter's night.
Hands around, hands around,Trip it, and not too slow;Clear is the fiddle and sweet its sound,Keep the girls' cheeks aglow.Still let your movements be dainty and light,This is the game for a winter's night.
Back to back, back to back,Turn to your place again;Never let lightness nor nimbleness lack,Either in maidens or men.Time hasteth ever, beware of its flight,Oh, what a game for a winter's night!
Slower now, slower now,Softer the music sighs;Look, there are beads on your partner's browThough there be light in her eyes.Lead her away and her grace requite,So goes the game on a winter's night.
Words in this poem
- draughty a.
- Pertaining to a draught, or current of air; as, a draughtly, comfortless room.
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dance is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Dance, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-dance.html, id L00713.
Form and metre
The Dance is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is dactylic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in dactylic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCC toeA · singB · lowA · swingB · whiteC · nightC
- 2 ABABCC aroundA · slowB · soundA · aglowB · lightC · nightC
- 3 ABABCC backA · againB · lackA · menB · flightC · nightC
- 4 ABAB-- nowA · sighsB · browA · eyesB · requite · night
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against dactylic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Heel and toe, heel and toe, | 6 | ······ |
| That is the song we sing; | 6 | ······ |
| Turn to your partner and curtsey low, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Balance and forward and swing. | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Corners are draughty and meadows are white, | 10 | /˘·/˘·/··· |
| This is the game for a winter's night. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Hands around, hands around, | 6 | ······ |
| Trip it, and not too slow; | 6 | ······ |
| Clear is the fiddle and sweet its sound, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Keep the girls' cheeks aglow. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Still let your movements be dainty and light, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| This is the game for a winter's night. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Back to back, back to back, | 6 | ······ |
| Turn to your place again; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Never let lightness nor nimbleness lack, | 9 | /·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Either in maidens or men. | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Time hasteth ever, beware of its flight, | 9 | ·/˘/˘/··· |
| Oh, what a game for a winter's night! | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Slower now, slower now, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Softer the music sighs; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Look, there are beads on your partner's brow | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Though there be light in her eyes. | 7 | ······· |
| Lead her away and her grace requite, | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| So goes the game on a winter's night. | 9 | ······/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.