Dat Gal o' Mine
Skin as black an' jes as sof' as a velvet dress,Teeth as white as ivory--well dey is I guess.
Eyes dat's jes as big an' bright as de evenin' star;An' dat hol' some sort o' light lublier by far.
Hair don't hang 'way down her back; plaited up in rows;Wid de two en's dat's behin' tied wid ribben bows.
Han's dat raly wuz'n made fu' hard work, I'm sho';Got a little bit o' foot; weahs a numbah fo'.
You jes oughtah see dat gal Sunday's w'en she goesTo de Baptis' meetin' house, dressed in her bes' clo'es.
W'en she puts her w'ite dress on an' othah things so fine;Now, Su', don't you know I'm proud o' dat gal o' mine.
About this text
Dat Gal o' Mine is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Dat Gal o' Mine, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/dat-gal-o-mine.html, id L08343.
Form and metre
Dat Gal o' Mine is 12 lines in 6 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 83% of the lines. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.9 syllables. 9% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AA dressA · guessA
- 2 AA starA · farA
- 3 AA rowsA · bowsA
- 5 AA goesA · clo'esA
- 6 AA fineA · mineA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Skin as black an' jes as sof' as a velvet dress, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Teeth as white as ivory--well dey is I guess. | 12 | ····/˘˘····· |
| Eyes dat's jes as big an' bright as de evenin' star; | 13 | ············· |
| An' dat hol' some sort o' light lublier by far. | 11 | ··········· |
| Hair don't hang 'way down her back; plaited up in rows; | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Wid de two en's dat's behin' tied wid ribben bows. | 12 | ············ |
| Han's dat raly wuz'n made fu' hard work, I'm sho'; | 11 | ··········· |
| Got a little bit o' foot; weahs a numbah fo'. | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| You jes oughtah see dat gal Sunday's w'en she goes | 12 | ·······/···· |
| To de Baptis' meetin' house, dressed in her bes' clo'es. | 12 | ············ |
| W'en she puts her w'ite dress on an' othah things so fine; | 13 | ············· |
| Now, Su', don't you know I'm proud o' dat gal o' mine. | 12 | ············ |
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.