The Dancing Girl
Do you know what it is to dance?Perhaps, you do know, in a fashion;But by dancing I mean,Not what's generally seen,But dancing of fire and passion,Of fire and delirious passion.
With a dusky-haired senorita,Her dark, misty eyes near your own,And her scarlet-red mouth,Like a rose of the south,The reddest that ever was grown,So close that you catchHer quick-panting breathAs across your own face it is blown,With a sigh, and a moan.
Ah! that is dancing,As here by the Carib it's known.
Now, whirling and twirlingLike furies we go;Now, soft and caressingAnd sinuously slow;With an undulating motion,Like waves on a breeze-kissed ocean:--And the scarlet-red mouthIs nearer your own,And the dark, misty eyesStill softer have grown.
Ah! that is dancing, that is loving,As here by the Carib they're known.
About this text
The Dancing Girl 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, The Dancing Girl, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/the-dancing-girl.html, id L08311.
Form and metre
The Dancing Girl is 29 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 -ABBAA dance · fashionA · meanB · seenB · passionA · passionA
- 2 -ABBA--AA senorita · ownA · mouthB · southB · grownA · catch · breath · blownA · moanA
- 4 -A-ABB-C-C twirling · goA · caressing · slowA · motionB · oceanB · mouth · ownC · eyes · grownC
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Do you know what it is to dance? | 8 | ········ |
| Perhaps, you do know, in a fashion; | 9 | ˘/·····/˘ |
| But by dancing I mean, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Not what's generally seen, | 7 | ··/˘˘˘· |
| But dancing of fire and passion, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Of fire and delirious passion. | 9 | ·/·˘/˘˘/˘ |
| With a dusky-haired senorita, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Her dark, misty eyes near your own, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And her scarlet-red mouth, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Like a rose of the south, | 6 | ······ |
| The reddest that ever was grown, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| So close that you catch | 5 | ····· |
| Her quick-panting breath | 5 | ··/˘· |
| As across your own face it is blown, | 9 | ·˘/······ |
| With a sigh, and a moan. | 6 | ······ |
| Ah! that is dancing, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| As here by the Carib it's known. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Now, whirling and twirling | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Like furies we go; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Now, soft and caressing | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| And sinuously slow; | 5 | ····· |
| With an undulating motion, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Like waves on a breeze-kissed ocean:-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And the scarlet-red mouth | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Is nearer your own, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And the dark, misty eyes | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Still softer have grown. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Ah! that is dancing, that is loving, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| As here by the Carib they're known. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
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.